Singer and songwriter Katy Perry and broadcast journalist and show host Gale King will be all female crews on the next mission of New Shepherd, a space tourism rocket run by Jeff Bezos' private company Blue Origin.
Blue Origin announced its lineup on Thursday ahead of the planned spaceflight this spring, but no specific dates for release have been announced. It also includes former NASA engineer Eyeshabo. Research scientist Amanda Nguyen. Film producer Kerianne Flynn. Lauren Sanchez, Bezos' fiance and helicopter pilot.
The company is drawing attention to flights by including celebrities and highlighting new milestones in spaceflight.
The spring launch will be the 11th flight carrying passengers and will be the entire New Shepherd's 31st mission. The suborbital rocket is named after Alan Shepherd, the first American to reach space in 1961 and one of the astronauts who walked the moon.
Flights in fully reusable vehicles take just over 10 minutes to take participants to altitudes over 62 miles. In contrast, astronauts on the International Space Station are orbit around 250 miles of Earth.
Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of the richest men on the planet, was one of the New Shepherd's first passengers in 2021, the year of Blue Origin's first crew.
Others who are part of the new Shepherd's Crew include William Shatner, who played the role of Captain Kirk in Star Trek in 2021. Edward Dwight reached space in 2024, at age 90, more than 60 years after his death as the first black astronaut. And then there was Michael Strahan, co-host of Good Morning America, who flew to missions in 2021.
The crew for the NS-31 mission are as follows:
Aishabo is a former aerospace engineer at the NASA Ames Research Center and is the CEO of Stemboard, an engineering company that provides advisory services to US government agencies. Of the Bahamian heritage, Bow “hopes that a journey from community college to space will encourage young people from the Bahamas and around the world to pursue their dreams,” a statement from Blue Origin said.
Amanda Nguyen is a researcher in Bio Broadcasting, a study of ways to support life in space at various institutions, including MIT and Harvard University and the Smithsonian Astrophysics Center. She worked on the final NASA Space Shuttle Mission, the STS-135, and the Kepler ExoPlanet Mission in 2011. Nguyen is also the founder of Rise, a non-profit and advocacy group for sexual violence survivors. For her work, she was nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.
Gayle King is a journalist and co-host of “CBS Mornings,” an editor of the website Oprah Daily (and she was long known as Oprah Winfrey's best friend), and a host of SiriusXM radio's call-in show “Gayle King in the House.” A Blue Origin statement said that King “issued someone who continues to embrace new adventures, even those who scare her.”
Katy Perry is one of the biggest names in pop music as a singer and songwriter. She is also the founder of the Firework Foundation, working to empower children in unserved communities through the arts. She was appointed UNICEF's Goodwill Ambassador in 2013.
Kerianne Flynn is the film producer for “This Changes Everything” (2018), a film exploring the history of women in Hollywood, and “Lily” (2024), a homage to Fairpay advocate Lily Ledbetter. Flynn is on the board of directors of the Allen Stevenson School and Hudson River Park development committees in New York City.
Helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez founded Black Ops Aviation, an aviation film and production company in 2016. She won an Emmy Award for being part of the news television team. She is a charitable work for Bezos, vice-chairman of the Bezos Earth Fund. She is the author of the children's book, “Fly Flying into Space.” Sanchez, who is engaged to Bezos, said “we've put together the mission,” Blue Origin's statement, referring to the new shepherd crew.
