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On Monday (April 14th), a purely female crew with the New Shepard rocket of the Blue Origin company rose towards space-at least for a short moment. In just ten minutes and 22 seconds it went up to 105 kilometers and back. The trip may have been short, but he had it for the crew. On board: Media icon Gayle King, entrepreneur Kerianne Flynn, the scientists Aisha Bowe and Amanda Nguyen-as well as Jeff Bezos’ partner Lauren Sánchez and pop superstar Katy Perry, who fulfilled a long-cherished dream with the trip.
Katy Perry: Off to weightlessness
Even before the start, Perry was emotional: “I dreamed of flying into space for 15 years,” she wrote on social media. In vacuum above the earth, she also sang “What a Wonderful World” for the fellow travelers. After the hard landing, a kiss on the Texas desert floor – spiritual and also a bit dramatic.
The short trip started, as usual at Blue Origin, near Van Horn in Texas. The New Shepard is largely autonomous and specializes in such tourist missions. So far, there have been over 50 passengers on board-including acting icon William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk, as well as various CEOs and investors. So Perry and Co. are in illustrious society.
What does the fun cost? Blue Origin is officially silent. Estimates are several hundred thousand dollars per ticket. However, it is clear: not everyone on board must have paid the full price – celebrities like Katy Perry bring a lot of PR for the company. The blue spatial suits of the Mission NS-31 were not mass-produced from the NASA warehouse, but a tailor-made design from the New York label Monse-on the initiative of Lauren Sánchez.
As exciting as the excursion, as hard as the criticism
Actress Olivia Munn, for example, described the all-tourists as “insatiable”-at a time when other problems seem more urgent. Also model Emily Ratajkowski had thought about the PR event: “You say you take care of Mother Earth and then you fly with a spaceship that is financed by a company that is solely responsible for the destruction of the planet.” Of course, she alludes to Amazon. Also converting experts warn: rocket starts leave emissions that could become a real problem with increasing space tourism.