Blue Origin’s eleventh human flight, designated NS-31, featuring an all-female crew, is scheduled to launch into space on April 14. The New Shepard rocket, owned by Jeff Bezos’s company, will take off from Launch Site One located in West Texas. This groundbreaking mission will include a distinguished group of women, including pop icon Katy Perry, television host Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist and civil rights advocate Amanda Nguyen, filmmaker Kerianne Flynn, and journalist and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez. The NS-31 mission is expected to last approximately 11 minutes, reaching an altitude of around 65 miles above the Earth. While the crew will not technically achieve orbit, they will exceed the Karman line, which is recognized internationally as the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, set at 62 miles. Additionally, this mission marks the first time a spacecraft will be crewed entirely by women since Valentina Tereshkova’s solo flight as a Russian cosmonaut in 1963. Prior to the launch, the crew will convene at the launch site in Van Horn, Texas, for their final training sessions.
