They went, they saw, they retreated. And all made it safely back down to earth, thank goodness. On Monday, April 14 (the 113th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic), Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-31 spacecraft launched into the atmosphere, stayed in zero gravity for 10 minutes, and landed back in West Texas (where the measles outbreak is raging). Obviously, the Titanic and measles aren’t directly related; I’m just trying to keep a tally of disaster-adjacent incidents that would’ve kept a lesser woman from joining the flight (it’s me, hi, I’m the lesser woman). But no, the six-woman, all-female crew — a first for Blue Origin and the first in 60 years for space travel overall — could not be cowed: Katy Perry, Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn completed their mission, all clad in custom Monse space suits. USA Today spoke with the more celebrity half of the crew (and Lauren Sánchez) after they disembarked from their historic trip:
Katy Perry thought of love and her daughter: “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.
But it’s NOT about Katy’s career! 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.
Gayle King is proud of herself: “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 [Oprah] 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.
Lauren Sánchez can only describe it as ‘quiet’: After touching down, Sánchez embraced Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and her fiance, and then went to look for her children. … “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.” Sánchez is set to wed Bezos in Italy later this year.
“I had to come back, I mean we’re getting married… That would be a bummer for me.” Which is why I posed the question a couple weeks ago whether it was better to book your intergalactic travel for pre or post wedding, Lauren! But the trip went off without a hitch, so I’m still calling it Lauren’s bachelorette party. As for Katy, I love how she declares that this wasn’t about her or her music… after releasing her tour setlist from space and seranading the crew. And while Katy was the one who kissed the ground (and she liked it) upon landing, I would’ve put money on Gayle pulling that move. That woman is scared sh-tless over flying — let alone flying into space! — as evidenced by her emotive face en route to takeoff. After talking her BFF into this extreme fear-coping exercise, Oprah was there on site to support her friend, as were Orlando Bloom and his and Katy’s daughter Daisy, and Khloe Kardashian and Kris Jenner, who are friends with Lauren (see, I’m not wrong about the bachelorette party vibes!).
I’m thrilled everyone made it back safely, and am looking forward to the next seismic event: finding out if Lauren and Jeff Bezos’ summer wedding ends up sinking Venice.
gayle was fearing for her life i'm crying😭 pic.twitter.com/FaPaDL0jfo
— 𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗻𝘆🫧💚 (@beyoncegarden) April 14, 2025
no wonder they came back so quickly https://t.co/MNTSyTZhyy
— fkajack (@fkajack) April 14, 2025
Imagine being terrified of flying and doing this! Mad respect for Gayle King. Lauren Sanchez and Katy Perry are another matter.
Yeah, no, sorry. Anyone who accepted to participate in this has forever lost my respect. There were a gazillion ways for Gayle to overcome her fear without partaking in this wasteful PR campaign for one of the worst human on the planet.
Agreed. Can you imagine being stuck in that loser tourist capsule with all those other losers? Blehhhhh so gross. And for literally nothing, no gain.
My opinion of Sanchez and Perry couldn’t get much lower but King has fallen in my eyes (not that I thought so highly of her before, but it’s lower now).
+1000%
I have always liked Gayle. I haven’t been watching morning TV since the election, but I used to watch CBS. But now, I am very disappointed. This was just some dumb PR thing. And such a waste of resources!
Agree. This whole things is almost parody. Starving for the poor, space travel for the rich.
I unfortunately listened to Katy’s interview, She was excited to learn more about “STEM and stuff.” Late stage capitalism really is something.
Exactly! This was a bs pr stunt to promote a garbage human being.
So stupid. Those people are nothing special. They had extra cash to burn on a ten minute trip to space. I prefer real astronauts, not cosplay ones
Agree. The whole thing was a gross display.
Exactly. It’s all so tone-deaf and gross.
100% agree. This PR stunt was about some rich women taking an 11 minute flight to “space” that benefited no one but themselves.
I did not realize they were only going up for 10 minutes. Jeez. That seems lame. At least stay up longer, like 30m or something, if you’re going to go up. Gayle’s face was real. I don’t love heights but went tandem skydiving with my dad years ago. In the video, going up on the plane, my face was just like Gayle’s.
I am so afraid of heights that I would have puked all over Lauren Sanchez’s fake hair!
If only…
Feminist poseurs flying in a giant penis.
The very phallic shaped capsule was hysterical! I laughed and laughed all day yesterday!!!
Right?! And what are the mat leave policies within Bezos companies? Does the insurances help pay for fertility treatment? Are there affordable daycares available for staff? Flexible hours and sick days that can be allocated to care of children and elderly relatives? Pay equity assessment? Unions?
Until all of the above is checked, even for the lowest positions in the companies, nothing that is Bezos-related can be feminist
So we are cutting cancer research, medicare & medicare, food stamps and all kinds of social programs so that billionaires can get tax breaks so they can afford to take ten minute space trips. Nice.
And space exploration. Real astronauts are losing their jobs. Space research is being cut. This is actually disgusting to behold.
Yeah, the optics on this aren’t what they think they are. Glad at least two scientists were on board, I guess. Not that we’ve heard from them at all because it’s all about “love” and upcoming songs and a wedding in Italy.
It was all so, so vapid.
What was the point of this? I’m just glad they got back safely.
I feel like they barely knew what it was about since they could only talk in platitudes. Seems like Katy Perry used it as a stunt to promote her music. The whole thing was just kind of bizarre.
My favorite part was the video showing Jeff Bezos tripping and falling flat on his face next to the rocket.
Absolutely no point. they weren’t even a crew since the capsule is fully automated. It’s just a display of incredibly rich people wasting money and finite resources instead of giving them for the greater good. All this while hundreds of thousands are losing their jobs, retirement savings and have to treat buying eggs like a luxury.
They got roundly (and rightly) mocked for even doing this with Bezos deciding to muzzle the first amendment and cozy up to Trump to get tax breaks. I am side eyeing Gayle and not shocked at the rest of the yahoos for going up there. Ugh. Feminist display (insert rude remark).
It really bothers me that they are proclaiming this the first with an all female crew. They weren’t a crew, they were tourists on ride. It seems like they’re preemptively taking that away from women who are actually astronauts . During a time when men are actively trying to rip away our rights and our accomplishments and erase them from history, it pisses me off that this is another tactic being done, but it’s erasing accomplishments that haven’t happened yet.
The FAA even came out and stated that they are not a crew. They are not “astronauts.”
Yep, they were merely passengers. Did did nothing pre-flight, during the flight or after the flight.
Millionaires spending money and saying “it’s for the people.” Really, really disgusting. Olivia Wilde and Olivia Munn are both right about this; it’s wasteful, egotistical, and completely tone-deaf. If you really want to support young girls becoming astronauts, then FIGHT THE DOGE CUTS TO NASA. I’m sure Katy and Gayle have no idea that DOGE cut $420 million from NASA funding. And don’t even get me started on the Monse spacesuits and Lauren Sanchez.
This was ALLLLL about capitalism, and it’s really abhorrent that they are pretending that they helped anyone at all.
Doge needs those cuts, how else will the new $2.3 Billion contract for Blue Origin get paid for? Not to mention the new $6 Billion for Spacex. Gaah
Anyone in this group that i previously had respect for- i now have markedly less respect for.
Women actually working at NASA are being erased from history and removed from their positions.
Very – let them eat cake.
Partying while the world burns and our country is currently sending people to concentration camps- death camps in El Salvador.
Please note: Auschwitz was not located in Germany either.
It was in Poland. And you just gave me the shivers. Because I visited Dachau, which is in Germany, named after the village next to it. The soldiers asked the villagers, how could you live next to this and do nothing? There are too many people in our country who live in a bubble of safety. Thank you for the reminder.
Quite literally, what are you talking about? What does Auschwitz being built in Poland by the Germans have anything to do with anything?
Because the US is trying to do something similar in El Salvador? Anyone involved in the administration, and really anyone, shouldn’t be allowed to claim that they couldn’t know what was going to happen to those sent to CECOT nor claim they’re not responsible because it happened in another territory
I can’t help but be disgusted by space tourism. The planet is on fire and people are starving. Income inequality is out of control and the same celebs who preach equality and environmental protection instead show off their wealth and burn obscene amounts of carbon to visit space for all of 10 minutes. Disgusting
It’s the new vanity vacation for the people who have so much money that they don’t know what to do with it all.
Meanwhile, down on Earth, innocent people are being forcibly removed from their homes and put in a prison in El Salvador. The glaciers and ice sheets are melting. But at least Lauren Sanchez gets to visit outer space and get married in a yacht. Sigh.
History really is repeating itself and we are re-living the era that lead to the Great Depression (and French Revolution) in real time. These ultra rich f+ckers have completely lost the plot. Can people start boycotting Amazon and all Bezos owned subsidiaries with the same intensity as Muskrat/Tesla? Also. More needs to be reported about the relationship dynamics/mental health of magat adjacent women like Lauren who take plastic surgery wwwwaaaaaayyyyyyy tooooo far. She looks like a cheap, hard plastic blow-up doll.
I recently started watching the series The Gilded Age and I couldn’t even get through the first season. Too on the nose regarding the economy/society that we will be going back to if this isn’t stopped soon.
So Lauren Sanchez says “the earth looked so quiet”. Lauren honey, the planet is going to hell in a handbasket in every possible way and your fecking fiancé is part of the hellscape that is happening RIGHT NOW. Of all the self-aggrandizing, self-congratulatory and stupid things to say when the whole world is teetering on the brink of annihilation. SMH…
What a waste of fuel.
They kept calling them astronauts and crew. No – they were passengers. They did nothing but sit back.
I wonder who paid for Gayle Kings seat. CBS or Oprah?
We know Sanchez got for free from her boyfriend.
Katy Perry will now write and record a crappy song about it.
They can kiss my ass.
We’ll never know Lauren’s real feelings about her little trip because she is unable to move her facial muscles. Was that her or a Halloween mask?
It was a space joy ride for multimillionaires supplied by a billionaire.
It’s just free PR for Jeffey to promote his privatization of space travel. For the elite to take paid for joy rides.
How many millions were spent on this compared to how little Amazon employees are paid and exploited.
This is all just a lot of ick for me.
Also, Katie promoting her tour during the flight was double ick.
Even this did have some scientific value I am not aware of. How many female pilots, astronauts or scientists would be more deserving than Katy Perry and Jocelyn Wildenstein 2.0. To be in space for all of 10 minutes.
This is so stupid. How many times have NASA and Russia already done this exact same thing? Instead of wasting money and time reinventing the wheel, why aren’t Bezos and Musk partnering with NASA to build on what’s already been done? Idiots.
So much money for what?
And as for an all girl posse in space, you would think we would be past the need to parade and applaud this in 2025. And Kate Perry? Why?
Orlando Bloom seemed a pretty cool caring human back in the elf days but now.. attached to this fame harlot .. yikes
Seriously. He always came across as a level-headed truly nice guy who didn’t take the business that seriously. What happened? And what does he see in Perry? Yeesh…🤮🤮
I was gobsmacked that he married Katy Perry. I don’t get it at all.
If they were the ‘crew’ what did each of them actually do that was necessary for the flight to happen?
Everyone’s comments are so spot on. Considering what is going on at NASA, this is just like a patronizing pat on the head. Like: “See, we let you little ladies take a ride into space! In the big rocket, vroom vroom! Alright, that’s enough “science” for you–go back home where you belong.”
Just “ew” on every level imaginable.
I sort of get why Katy Perry would agree to this. Pop stars need the publicity. You expect them to do stuff that’s a bit .. dumb.
I don’t get why a journalist like Gayle King would agree to do this. Although I guess journalists don’t really exist anymore, but that’s sort of her official job title.
Tone-deaf PR stunt wrapped in performative feminism. Please. There’s nothing to celebrate here.
Somehow Katy Perry’s marriage to Russell Brand now makes a lot more sense. Narcissists gonna narcissist. Also I don’t generally fw narcotics but unless it’s just me, all these ladies seem high af. Did they get some ketamine from Elno Mork?
Question; are there any actual photos of these women physically getting into the ship? I looked all over but could have missed it.
Gayle did kiss the ground when she got out.
Ugh. Just ugh.
Also they were in space 10 minutes and Katy Perry felt compelled to sing during this time? Wtf. She’s no Mariah or maybe the zero gravity doubled as autotune.
So so over this. I used to have high hopes for Oprah and Gayle. I don’t anymore. Just say you wanted to go to space while the peasants starve, don’t couch it as being altruistic or helpful to women.
“This is all for the benefit of Earth,” Katy Perry said. “I wanted to model courage and worthiness and fearlessness.”
You took a 10-minute ride, idiot, and its environmental impact actively harmed Earth. All you modeled is cluelessness.
I am so relieved that you all felt like I did, that this was nothing at all to celebrate, and an embarrassing anti-feminist, pro-capitalist vomitfest.