Katy Perry and five other celebrities launched to space Monday morning on a short flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and capsule.
Joining Perry as part of the all-female crew was Gayle King, co-host of “CBS Mornings”; Lauren Sánchez, a former journalist who is Jeff Bezos’ fiancée; Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist; Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist; and Kerianne Flynn, a movie producer.
Liftoff took place at 9:30 a.m. ET from Blue Origin’s launch site in Van Horn, Texas.
During the roughly 10-minute flight, the six crew members flew just above the Kármán line, an invisible boundary at an altitude of 62 miles that is widely accepted as the edge of space, before the capsule descends under parachutes and lands in the Texas desert.
“Congratulations and welcome back to Earth,” mission control radioed to the crew.
First out of the spacecraft was Sánchez, who embraced Bezos. Perry was next, kissing the ground as she exited, followed by a jubilant Nguyen and Bowe.
King was next out of the capsule, falling to her knees and also kissing the ground. Last out of the capsule was Flynn, who threw her arms up and cheered.
“I feel I don’t even know how much it’s going to change me,” Sánchez said, adding that she felt joy and gratefulness during the flight.
“It was the most incredible experience of my life to be up there and see like the such vast darkness in space, and look down on our planet, the moon was so beautiful,” Flynn said. “And that was like, I felt like that was a special gift just for me.”
King, who has been open about her anxieties around flying, said she felt proud for facing her fears.
“I stepped out of my comfort zone in a way that I never thought was possible for me,” she said. “And now that I’ve done it, I really do feel like I can take on anything.”
King also shared that Perry sang “What a Wonderful World” in space, adding that the other crew members were encouraging the pop star to sing one of her songs, but Perry insisted that the moment was not about her.
Blue Origin said that the New Shepard crew reached an altitude of more than 346,000 feet, with the mission in total taking just more than 10 minutes.
Along with Bezos, Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Khloé Kardashian were among those in attendance for the launch.
This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.
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