A pop star, a journalist and a television news host all walk into a space capsule. Yes, really.
Blue Origin’s NS-31 touched down Monday morning after bringing Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sánchez
to space and back. The stars, part of a six-woman, all-female cadre, rocketed off alongside former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
The mission marked the first all-female space voyage in more than 60 years.
As celebrity guests like Oprah Winfrey, Khloe Kardashian and Kris Jenner watched on, the capsule fired off into zero gravity, and the women were all smiles, tearful and in awe of their intergalactic trip when they returned.
Katy Perry, Gayle King go to space on Blue Origin flight: Live updates
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Katy Perry ‘connected to love’ after space flight
“I feel super connected to love,” Perry said of her trip to space. “This experience is second to being a mom.”
Holding the daisy she took with her on the mission, Perry remarked that she brought that particular bloom because it’s a common plant and it can grow through any circumstances. It’s also the name of her 4-year-old daughter Daisy Dove, who was present at the launch.
“This is all for the benefit of Earth,” she said. “I wanted to model courage and worthiness and fearlessness,” Perry added, revealing it was a hard decision as a mom to take that risk but that she needed to “surrender” to the universe. And she said “of course,” she would definitely write a song about the experience.
Perry, who sang a bit of “What a Wonderful World” in space, said the experience was much bigger than her music career.
“It’s not about me, it’s not about singing my songs. It’s about a collective energy in there, it’s about us, it’s about making space for future women and taking up space and belonging,” she said, later calling the flight “the highest high.”
The pop star also revealed the set list for her upcoming tour while in space, and said she carried with her 300 bracelets to bring back for children involved with Perry’s Firework Foundation, which helps underserved communities connect with the arts.
Oprah, Khloe Kardashian support star-studded Blue Origin space flight: ‘Dream big’
Gayle King conquers fears, says Katy Perry sang to the astronauts
“I can’t even believe what I saw,” King said. “I’m so proud of me right now.”
King has been open about a fear of flying, which is in part why best friend Winfrey encouraged her to go.
“The flight instructor said that I am her best success story. Why? Because she’s never had someone go through the course who’s terrified of flying,” King said.
She also described the mission as “such a reminder of how we have to do better, be better.”
“It’s oddly quiet when you get up there, it’s really quiet and peaceful and you look down at the planet and you think ‘That’s where we came from?'” she said. “It’s so nasty and so vitriolic nowadays and I mean if everybody could experience that peace that we had up there and the kindness.”
King described the crew as a “sisterhood” and said Perry’s singing during their descent back to earth made her emotional.
Lauren Sánchez reflects on flight to space, looks ahead to Jeff Bezos wedding
After touching down, Sánchez embraced
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and her fiancé,
and then went to look for her children.
“I’m so proud of this crew,” Sánchez said in a post-flight interview. “The earth looked so quiet. I was just quiet … I don’t think you can describe it. … It was quiet but then also really alive.
“You look at it and you’re like, we’re all in this together. That’s all I could think about. We’re so connected, more connected than you realize,” she added, saying her overwhelming emotion was joy and gratitude.
“I had to come back, I mean we’re getting married,” she joked about her upcoming nuptials. “That would be a bummer for me.” Sanchez
is set to wed Bezos in Italy later this year.
