New Delhi, April 14 (IANS) Pop star Katy Perry, along with five other females, is set to create history by touring to the edge of space on Jeff Bezos’ aerospace venture Blue Origin’s tourist mission on Monday evening.
The six-member crew is expected to lift off on the company’s reusable New Shepard rocket — NS-31 — from Launch Site One in West Texas at 8:30 a.m. CDT (7:00 pm IST).
The 11th human flight to suborbital space will last 11 minutes and will fly above the Karman line — the internationally recognised boundary of space.
“I’ve dreamt of going to space for 15 years and tomorrow that dream becomes a reality,” Perry shared in a post, along with a video, on Instagram.
“I am so honoured to be alongside five other incredible and inspiring women as we become the first ever all-female flight space crew!” she added.
In the video, she gave her fans a sneak peek inside her space capsule and declared that she might sing in space.
“I think I’m gonna sing, I’m gonna sing in a little bit, I got to sing in space,” she said.
Besides Perry, the mission includes Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sanchez.
“This is the first all-female flight crew since Valentina Tereshkova’s solo spaceflight in 1963,” according to Blue Origin.
While Perry is one of the best-selling music artists of all time and a philanthropist, Flynn is a film producer and philanthropist. King and Sanchez are award-winning journalists.
Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist, will become the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman astronaut.
Bowe is a former NASA rocket scientist, and the CEO of STEMBoard, an engineering firm. She is expected to conduct three research experiments, including studies on plant biology and human physiology — advancing her mission to explore space for the benefit of Earth.
The mission will be the second this year. So far, Blue Origin has flown 52 people above the Karman line.
–IANS
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