Katy Perry, Gayle King on Blue Origin flight launching Monday : NPR

Singer Katy Perry and journalist Gayle King are among the many star-studded, all-female crew poised to make a fast journey into house on Monday morning, due to Jeff Bezos’ personal rocket firm.

They are going to be flying on Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch car, which since 2021 has ferried dozens of scientists, entrepreneurs and celebrities above the Kármán line, the internationally acknowledged boundary of house, about 62 miles above Earth’s floor.

Monday’s mission, NS-31, has garnered appreciable consideration in current weeks due to its well-known passengers and historic nature.

Will probably be the primary all-female spaceflight since 1963, when Soviet-era cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova — the first woman in space — orbited the Earth throughout an almost three-day solo flight.

Blue Origin’s flight is ready to be considerably shorter, about 11 minutes.

“New Shepard astronauts ascend towards house at greater than thrice the pace of sound,” the corporate’s web site reads. “They cross the Kármán line … earlier than unbuckling to drift weightless and stare upon our planet. The crew returns gently beneath parachutes.”

Blue Origin is reside streaming the flight on its web site and social media channels. You can too watch the webcast beneath.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ7XHwMMSas

This is what else to know concerning the flight.

When is the launch? 

The New Shepard rocket is scheduled to take off from Blue Origin’s Launch Website One in West Texas on Monday morning. The corporate says its launch window opens at 9:30 a.m. EDT.

Who’s on board? 

The totally autonomous car has no pilots. Its crew members are:

• Lauren Sánchez, a journalist, creator, pilot and philanthropist who additionally occurs to be Bezos’ fiancé. She is credited with placing the staff collectively and dealing with the model Monse to revamp the women’s space suits.
• Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist and STEM advocate who Blue Origin says would be the first individual of Bahamian descent to go to house. It says she’s going to carry postcards from college students and conduct three analysis experiments on board, together with on plant biology and human physiology. 
• Amanda Nguyễn, a bioastronautics analysis scientist and civil rights activist whose advocacy for sexual violence survivors noticed her awarded TIME’s Lady of the 12 months and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Blue Origin says she would be the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian lady astronaut, calling her flight “a logo of reconciliation between the US and Vietnam.” 
• Gayle King, the outstanding broadcast journalist who cohosts CBS Information’ flagship program, CBS Mornings, and is the editor-at-large of Oprah Day by day. She mentioned when the flight was announced in February: “I do not know methods to clarify being terrified and excited on the identical time. It is like how I felt about to ship a child.” 
• Katy Perry, the pop star whose prolonged catalogue features a few songs that reference aliens and shooting across the sky. Perry told Elle earlier this month that her tailored house playlist — titled “the House Sistas” — contains Nicki Minaj’s “Starships,” “Starman” by David Bowie, “Across the World” by Daft Punk and her personal “E.T.” 
• Kerianne Flynn, a movie producer and philanthropist who told Elle she’s dreamed of going to house ever since she was a child in small-town Michigan, stargazing together with her grandfather. 

What sort of rocket is it? 

Blue Origin calls New Shepard its “totally reusable, suborbital rocket system constructed for human flight from the start.” It’s named after Alan Shepard, the primary American in house.

The rocket’s pressurized capsule — “environmentally managed for consolation” — matches six folks, every with their very own window seat.

The capsule separates from the booster on the best way again, present process a interval of freefall earlier than touchdown with the help of three parachutes.

In keeping with Blue Origin, after the rocket reaches house, its engine restarts to gradual the booster all the way down to a pace of simply 6 miles per hour for a “managed pinpoint touchdown on the pad.”

How a lot do flights price? 

Blue Origin hasn’t publicly confirmed the value of a ticket, however its reservation page requires a $150,000 deposit to start the method.

The corporate auctioned off a seat on its first crewed flight for $28 million in 2021.

Some celebrities have flown without spending a dime as “honored guests,” as was the case for TV host Michael Strahan, Alan Shepard’s daughter Laura Shepard Churchley and actor William Shatner.

What number of flights has Blue Origin executed? 

NS-31 is the New Shepard’s eleventh human flight, in line with Blue Origin.

The New Shepard made its maiden space voyage in July 2021, carrying Bezos, his brother Mark, and the oldest and youngest folks to ever fly into house at the moment — 82-year-old pioneering feminine aviator Wally Funk and physics scholar Oliver Daemen, 18.

Blue Origin has been sending pioneers, outstanding figures and paying prospects into orbit ever since, finishing its 30th overall mission to house in February.