Photo from @blueorigin

American singer-songwriter and pop star Katy Perry roared to space and reached for the stars with an all-women crew riding Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket in an 11-minute spaceflight, the Flight NS-31, which took off on April 14. They made history by being the first all-female spaceflight in over 60 years as of today.

Katy Perry said that flying to space was her dream for 15 years. Kissing the ground and holding a daisy (also her daughter's name) up to the sky, as she went back from the trip, she said, “This experience has shown me, you’ll never know how much love is inside of you, how much love you have to give, and how loved you are until the day you launch.”

Katy, one of the best-selling music artists of all time, is also an active advocate of many philanthropic causes, including as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She also established her own Firework Foundation, which empowers children from underserved communities by igniting their inner light through the arts. 

Joining Katy Perry on this trip to space were five more amazing ladies. 

One of them is Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos’ fiancée. Right after coming out of the capsule, in an interview, she described what the Earth looked like from space: “It was quiet but also really alive, and you look at it like, we’re all in this together, we’re so connected, we’re connected more like you’ve ever realized.“

Lauren is an Emmy Award-winning American journalist who established herself as an entertainment reporter and news anchor. Lauren is also a New York Times bestselling author, pilot, Vice Chair of the Bezos Earth Fun, and founder of Black Ops Aviation (the first female-owned and operated aerial film and production company). Her partner, Jeff Bezos, is the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin. 

In her Instagram post about their trip, she said, “There’s a silence in space that somehow made everything feel more alive. I looked down at our planet and felt how fragile and beautiful it all is. And how deeply connected we are. This flight wasn’t about escape. It was about perspective.”

Another woman on that flight is CBS host Gayle King. On the best part of the experience, she shared, “It’s oddly quiet when you get up there, it’s so quiet and peaceful. And you look down on our planet and say, 'Is that where we came from?' For me, it’s such a reminder of how we need to do better and be better. Be better, human beings.”

Gayle King is a TV personality, author, broadcast journalist for CBS News, editor-at-large of Oprah Daily, and the host of Gayle King in the House on SiriusXM radio. In an Instagram post of CBS Mornings, they shared, “For @gayleking, the sky is no longer the limit.”

Also on that flight was Amanda Nguyen, who made history as the first Vietnamese woman and Southeast Asian woman astronaut to fly in space. She is a bioastronautics research scientist who graduated from Harvard and conducted research at Harvard Center for Astrophysics, MIT, NASA, and the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences.

Almost speechless after the trip, she shared, “I just want all survivors to know that you can heal and no dream is too wild. If it’s so wild out there like going to space, you can absolutely make it through, and it is absolutely possible.

Amanda is also a Vietnamese-American social entrepreneur and civil rights activist. For her efforts in helping sexual violence survivors, she became a Nobel Prize nominee in 2019 and a TIME's Woman of the Year awardee in 2022. Thrilled and fulfilled, in an Instagram post, she wrote, “What justice feels like. I kept my promise. Touchdown.”

Emotional, Kerianne Flynn shared, “I have almost no words, it is the most incredible experience in my life to be up there and see such vast darkness and space and look down on our planet. And the moon, it was so beautiful, I feel like it was a special gift just for me.”

Kerianne Flynn is an American film producer with notable projects such as Lilly in 2014, The Automatic Hate in 2015, and This Changes Everything in 2018. She is also passionate about community-building through board service and nonprofit work with The Allen-Stevenson School, The High Line, and Hudson River Park.  

Kerianne shared an image of the group in her Instagram post, writing, “Today’s the day I fly to space with this amazing crew.”

Also among the women in that spaceflight was NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur, and global STEM advocate Aisha Bowe. She is also the CEO of STEMBoard, an engineering firm twice named to the Inc. 5000 list, and founder of LINGO, an edtech company aiming to equip one million students with essential tech skills. This trip marked Aisha as the first person of Bahamian descent to visit space.  

Reflecting on that unique experience, she said, “I will never be the same. You could go up there and see the Earth, and it was so beautiful.” She added, “I picked the right dream.”

Grateful, she wrote in a post, "Touchdown and still floating ☁✨ It was an absolute honor to fly with such an incredible group of humans on NS-31. We launched as individuals and came back connected through something truly unforgettable. This moment will stay with me forever."

Lead photo from @blueorigin