By Blue Origin made history on Monday with the successful completion of its latest suborbital flight, NS-31, featuring the company’s first all-female crew. The mission marked the 11th human flight and 31st overall for Jeff Bezos’s space tourism firm.
The crew included six accomplished women: aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe; activist Amanda Nguyen; CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King; pop superstar Katy Perry; film producer Kerianne Flynn; and author-philanthropist Lauren Sánchez, who is also Bezos’s fiancée.
Lifting off from Van Horn, Texas, the autonomous New Shepard rocket carried the women past the Kármán line—62 miles above Earth—where they experienced a few moments of weightlessness before safely landing in the desert.
An emotional Sánchez was greeted by Bezos at the capsule door. “Earth looked so— it was so quiet,” she said through tears. “It was just quiet.”
Aisha Bowe described the experience as transformative. “There’s no boundaries, no border. There’s just Earth. I will never be the same.”
Amanda Nguyen, who is also a sexual assault survivor, brought a symbolic item—a hospital bracelet from her recovery—as her “zero G” indicator. “It was a reminder to never, never give up,” she said.
Katy Perry kissed the ground upon landing and held up a daisy in honor of her 4-year-old daughter, Daisy. “This experience is second to being a mom,” Perry stated, after singing “It’s A Wonderful World” aboard the capsule.
Gayle King, overcome with emotion, also kissed the earth. “This moment belongs to all of us,” she shared.
The successful flight marks a significant milestone in space tourism and representation, celebrating the power of women in exploration, science, media, and beyond.
