{"id":24833,"date":"2025-04-16T13:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T13:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/24833\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T13:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T13:19:09","slug":"katy-perry-gayle-king-space-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/24833\/","title":{"rendered":"Katy Perry, Gayle King space updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Blue Origin space flight returns to Earth with star-studded crew<\/p>\n

Blue Origin’s all-female crew returned to Earth with celebrity astronauts on board.<\/p>\n

Queue “E.T.” \u2013 Katy Perry<\/a> went intergalactic (literally).<\/p>\n

The singer, along with several other members of a star-studded, all-female crew<\/a>, blasted off Monday as part of Blue Origin’s latest space mission,<\/a> taking off and landing successfully. Perry put her pop star duties on hold to explore the outer orbit<\/a> for 11 minutes.<\/p>\n

The mission, called NS-31<\/a>, also included television personality Gayle King<\/a> and journalist Lauren S\u00e1nchez,<\/a> who is engaged to Blue Origin (and Amazon) founder Jeff Bezos<\/a>. The crew is rounded out by former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe,\u00a0bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn. The six women became the first all-female space crew in more than 60 years, Blue Origin has said.<\/p>\n

In the lead-up to the flight, Perry<\/a>, King<\/a> and S\u00e1nchez<\/a> all expressed nerves and an eagerness to bring a female finesse to space. And on the day of the launch, celebrity friends including Oprah Winfrey, Khloe Kardashian and Kris Jenner joined the historic moment<\/a> at the site in Texas.<\/p>\n

‘The highest high’: <\/strong>Katy Perry, Gayle King recap emotional flight to space<\/a><\/p>\n

“I feel super connected to love,” Perry said of her trip to space.<\/p>\n

Holding the daisy she took with her on the mission, Perry remarked that she brought that particular bloom because it\u2019s a common plant and it can grow through any circumstances.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“I can’t even believe what I saw,” King said. “I’m so proud of me right now.”<\/p>\n

King said the opportunity was “such a reminder of how we have to do better, be better,” she added, echoing S\u00e1nchez’s sentiment that it was very quiet in space and invited reflection on how important it is to take care of one another on earth.<\/p>\n

King described the crew as a “sisterhood” and revealed Perry sang “What a Wonderful World” to the women on their descent back to earth.<\/p>\n

After touching down and embracing loved ones, the six-woman crew reflected on what it was like to be lifted upwards towards the heavens.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think you can describe it \u2026 it was quiet but also really alive,” Sanchez said of looking down at Earth.<\/p>\n

“I had to come back, I mean we’re getting married,” she joked about her upcoming nuptials. “That would be a bummer.” Sanchez is set to wed<\/a> Bezos in Italy later this year.<\/p>\n

Jeff Bezos, Lauren S\u00e1nchez <\/strong>will wed in Venice, city confirms<\/a><\/p>\n

As Blue Origin employees gathered around the capsule to help prepare for opening, viewers watched anxiously on, waiting for Perry, King, S\u00e1nchez and others to emerge.<\/p>\n

Bezos greeted the women, embracing S\u00e1nchez who had tears in her eyes and walked off to see her children.<\/p>\n

REWATCH: <\/strong>Katy Perry, Gayle King, 4 other women go to space with Blue Origin launch<\/a><\/p>\n

Perry kissed the ground and held up the daisy she brought with her onboard. There were screams from Nguyen, cheers from Bowe, and King gestured to the sky and kneeled down to kiss the ground.<\/p>\n

“Let me just appreciate the ground for just a second,” she joked.\u00a0Flynn exclaimed and raised her hands before hugging Bezos.<\/p>\n

Perry’s daughter Daisy, whom the singer shares with partner Orlando Bloom<\/a>, was present at the launch and watched her mom head to space.<\/p>\n

“She’s 4 and a half, so she’s still trying to figure out what day of the week it is,” Perry joked about her daughter’s reaction to the mission ahead of liftoff. “But it is very normal for us to talk about mommy going to space now, and I will be so excited to hold her when I land.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 60-foot-tall rocket topped with the gum-dropped shape crew capsule<\/a> got off the ground right on time at 9:30 a.m. Monday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Launching from Blue Origin\u2019s private west Texas ranch, known as Launch Site One, the New Shepard reached supersonic speeds surpassing 2,000 mph during its ascent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around the 3-minute mark, the rocket booster separated from the crew capsule<\/a>, at which point the women aboard became weightless as their spacecraft continued toward apogee, or its highest point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The New Shepard’s crew capsule then took them on its famed brief voyage above the K\u00e1rm\u00e1n Line \u2013 the 62-mile-high internationally recognized boundary of space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At this point, the women were permitted to safely unstrap from their seats to experience a few minutes of microgravity and gaze out the capsule’s large windows<\/a> to take in a stunning view of Earth. The women on board could be heard on the webcast marveling at the moon and the thin blue line of Earth’s atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the rocket booster headed back to the ground while firing its engines and using its fins to slow and control its descent to land about seven minutes after liftoff about two miles from the launchpad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The capsule then began what Blue Origin refers to as a “stable freefall” \u2013 plummeting back to Earth. The women on board could soon be heard whooping in joy as three massive parachutes deployed after about nine minutes into the flight and the capsule made a soft landing two minutes later in the desert, sending up plumes of dust.\u00a0<\/p>\n

King, Perry and company touched down just a few moments after leaving earth Monday. Dust blew up as the rocket landed.<\/p>\n

The mission saw celebrities and activists alike head to space. The voices of the women could be heard screaming as they descended, shortly after they were heard mid-flight marveling about the moon as they entered zero gravity and were unable to unbuckle and float about the cabin.<\/p>\n

The space capsule holding Perry, King and their peers launched Monday morning as a breathless crowd watched on.<\/p>\n

Amid the dry, already alien-like backdrop of the Texas desert, Blue Origin workers and families of the six-woman all-female crew \u2013 the first of its kind \u2013 saw the rocket lift upward and turn a pop star, a journalist, an activist and others into astronauts.<\/p>\n

When will Katy Perry, Gayle King, others head to space? How to watch Blue Origin launch livestream<\/p>\n

The launch is happening at\u00a0Launch Site One<\/a> in Southwest Texas.<\/p>\n

A livestream is scheduled to begin<\/a> at 8 a.m. ET, with the launch window beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n

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Katy Perry, Gayle King kiss the ground after Blue Origin flight<\/p>\n

The six women were the first all-female space flight crew in more than 60 years.<\/p>\n

King’s best friend Oprah Winfrey<\/a> watched on as her friend and fellow famed interviewer readied to take flight.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never been more proud of my friend than today,” Winfrey said, adding that she felt very calm about the whole ordeal. Winfrey wore a bright yellow sweater in honor of King’s call signs which is sunshine.<\/p>\n

“This is bigger than just going to space,” she said of her friend who has long been a fearful flier. “This is overcoming a wall of fear. I think it’s going to be cathartic.”<\/p>\n

‘Dream big’: <\/strong>Oprah, Khloe Kardashian support star-studded Blue Origin space flight<\/a><\/p>\n

Before blast-off, King told Blue Origin that when she first began toying with the idea of going to space her children and Winfrey signaled immediate support.<\/p>\n

Winfrey immediately encouraged her to take the chance, King said, saying her friend pointed out how much regret she might have if she had to watch the flight take off and wonder about what it would be like to be on it.<\/p>\n

“You should always know that no dream is too big,” King said.<\/p>\n

As the all-female crew readied for takeoff, watchers were treated to a celebrity-studded sendoff with part of the Kardashian-Jenner family showing up to signal support.<\/p>\n

“It’s really something,” Kris Jenner<\/a> said, adding that Kim Kardashian<\/a> was supposed to attend as well but was studying for a law school exam. “It’s a very brave thing to do,” she added of the space flight.<\/p>\n

“Really whatever you dream of it is in our reach,” Khloe Kardashian<\/a> added. “Dream big, wish for the stars and one day you can maybe be amongst them.”<\/p>\n

Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, the gum drop-shaped\u00a0New Shepard<\/a>\u00a0launch vehicle is designed to be fully reusable\u00a0<\/p>\n

The spacecraft operates autonomously \u2013 meaning no pilots or professional astronauts are aboard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Launches with celebrity crews may attract headlines, but the\u00a0majority of spaceflights Blue Origin has conducted to date with New Shepard haven’t even had humans aboard at all. Across 30 total spaceflights, an uncrewed New Shepard spacecraft has multiple times flown with scientific payloads<\/a> on behalf of paying customers, including NASA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For nearly four years since its first crewed spaceflight, New Shepard has served as\u00a0a powerful symbol\u00a0<\/a>of Blue Origin’s commercial spaceflight ambitions\u00a0amid a growing space tourism industry<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spaceflight, once a sector dominated by government space agencies like NASA, is increasingly becoming a commercial enterprise as billionaire-led companies like Bezos’ Blue Origin, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic look to develop their own spacecraft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. space agency is even poised to soon be potentially led by Jared Isaacman, himself a billionaire who has funded two of his own private spaceflights<\/a> with SpaceX.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Perry, King and the rest of the crew prepared for takeoff, they loaded up into a set of trucks with the windows open, waving to loved ones and Blue Origin workers. Bezos drove one of the Rivian trucks with fianc\u00e9e S\u00e1nchez.<\/p>\n

Where flights set to enter full orbit and remain in space for a few days require their astronauts to quarantine, this 11-minute flight doesn’t hold the same requirements, allowing for the women to give cameras a shot of them reaching out to fans and family for a personal send-off.<\/p>\n

In a pre-flight interview, a tearful Perry talked about the love she felt for her family and a sense of pride about what the trip represents. Perry revealed she will bring a real-life daisy with her into orbit, to remind her of the preciousness of the earth (and a tribute to her daughter Daisy, no doubt).<\/p>\n

“The message to my family is that I love them so much. And I am so grateful to be representing a fearless female in my family which is a domino effect from my mom, from my sister and definitely something I feel from my daughter,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I love you,” Perry posted on X<\/a> in all caps Monday morning, hinting at a last earthly goodbye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Katy Perry space flight glam: ‘I’m going to be wearing lipstick’<\/p>\n

“Space is going to finally be glam,” Perry told Elle magazine earlier this month,<\/a> revealing she would be getting her hair and makeup done for the mission. “Let me tell you something. If I could take glam up with me, I would do that.”<\/p>\n

“We’re going to have lash extensions flying in the capsule!” S\u00e1nchez joked, assuring a worried King that hers are securely glued on so they would stay put.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s so important for people to see us like that. This dichotomy of engineer and scientist, and then beauty and fashion,” Nguyen added. “We contain multitudes. Women are multitudes. I’m going to be wearing lipstick.”<\/p>\n

Olivia Munn calls new Blue Origin <\/strong>space flight with Katy Perry, Lauren S\u00e1nchez ‘gluttonous’<\/a><\/p>\n

King,<\/a> who has achieved icon status as a television host and author, said while she’s sure others seeing her up there will hold significance, one audience member stands out as special.<\/p>\n

“My grandson, who’s 3\u00bd, thinks it’s the coolest thing,” she told Elle. “He will be there at the launch. He already has a little astronaut uniform.”<\/p>\n

Gayle King admits to having nerves before Blue Origin flight<\/p>\n

Mere days ahead of he expedition, King admitted to having some nerves in an interview with Vladimir Duthiers for “CBS Mornings<\/a>” that released April 11.<\/p>\n

“I’ll be ready Monday morning, I promise,” she said. ” But I still have a ways to go before I’m like, ‘OK, put me in, coach. Let’s go.'”<\/p>\n

She explained the historic nature of the space launch is what encouraged her to be part of the adventure.<\/p>\n

“There was something about being part of the first female team to me,” she said. “The group of women that they put together is so extraordinary to me that I thought, ‘Wow. Why would I not wanna be a part of that?'”<\/p>\n

“I’m looking forward to just floating in space, and just seeing what that feels like, and what that looks like,” she said.<\/p>\n

William Shatner space flight, more celebrities in space<\/p>\n

Katy Perry and Gayle King <\/strong>are going to space. These celebrities have already been.<\/a><\/p>\n

Monday’s blast-off represents the first all-woman flight to space since the Soviet Union’s Valentina Tereshkova\u2019s solo venture in 1963.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perry and King are not the first big-name stars<\/a> to take their fame into orbit, however: “Star Trek” actor William Shatner became the oldest person to head to space in 2021, and NFL player turned television host Michael Strahan also boarded a Blue Origin flight that same year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Contributing: KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY; Natassia Paloma, El Paso Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue Origin space flight returns to Earth with star-studded crew Blue Origin’s all-female crew returned to Earth with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5311],"tags":[5784,4177,4021,4080,5787,77,15276,12766,4178,15274,1631,15277,1429,7797,3462,5791,269,5775,5785,12,5772,15278,7723,15280,5179,5185,15275,6581,3020,711,5180,1022,15281,413,15282,6097,53,5598,6093,6589,5776,5181,49,978,659,15279],"class_list":["post-24833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-affiliate","tag-amazon-com","tag-arts","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrities-u0026-entertainment-news","tag-entertainment","tag-gayle","tag-gayle-king","tag-inc","tag-katy","tag-katy-perry","tag-king","tag-life","tag-life-now","tag-local","tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","tag-music","tag-network","tag-network-trending","tag-news","tag-now","tag-oprah","tag-oprah-winfrey","tag-optimized","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-perry","tag-point","tag-pop","tag-pop-music","tag-positive","tag-seo","tag-seo-team-optimized","tag-space","tag-space-technology","tag-team","tag-technology","tag-the","tag-to","tag-to-the-point","tag-trending","tag-u0026","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-winfrey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}