Meet the Trailblazing Women of the Blue Origin Flight: Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, and Four Others in Space

On April 14, 2025, six women aboard Blue Origin Flight NS-31 made history as the first all-female crew to fly to the edge of space since Valentina Tereshkova‘s solo 1963 flight on Vostok 6. The rocket took off for its round trip from the Blue Origin Launch Site in West Texas and returned approximately eight minutes later. But who were the women aboard the historic flight? Life & Style breaks down the crew members of the once-in-a-lifetime expedition, including a pop star and billionaire Jeff Bezos’ fiancée.

Pop star Katy Perry, known for hit songs like “Firework” and “Teenage Dream,” among several others throughout her career, was announced as a member of the Blue Origin flight crew in February 2025.

“If you had told me that I would be part of the first ever all-female crew in space, I would have believed you,” the former American Idol judge wrote on Instagram at the time. “Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child. Although we didn’t grow up with much, I never stopped looking at the world with hopeful WONDER! I work hard to live my life that way still, and I am motivated more than ever to be an example for my daughter that women should take up space (pun intended).”

In an Instagram video ahead of the flight shared on April 13, 2025, Katy teased that she was going to sing a song while she and her crewmates were in space. “I think I’m gonna sing, sing a little bit. I gotta sing in space!” she said.

Katy ended up singing “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong and later explained why she didn’t sing one of her own tracks.

“I think that it’s not about me. It’s not about singing my songs,” she said in her post-flight interview, per Us Weekly. “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. And it’s about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it. This is all for the benefit of Earth.”

CBS News personality Gayle King was also aboard the rocket. While her crewmates looked overjoyed to be going on the expedition, many viewers noticed that the journalist looked nervous or unhappy to be there. Gayle admitted in her post-flight interview that she had been feeling a bit uneasy about the flight.

“At that moment I was so afraid, I just wanted to get into my seat because I just wanted to let the training kick in,” she said. “I just wanted to get inside the capsule and sit down. So the process of walking up there was a little daunting for me.”

When she walked off the rocket after the flight, Gayle got on her knees and kissed the ground as she said, “I just have to have a moment with the ground … to appreciate the ground for just a second.” However, she admitted, “That was amazing.”

Lauren Sánchez, who is the fiancée of Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, was also aboard the flight. Like Gayle, Lauren gained fame from her journalism career, known for being a guest host on The View, a cohost on KTTV Fox 11’s Good Day L.A. and an anchor on Extra. She also authored a children’s book called The Fly Who Flew to Space in 2024.

“This flight will undoubtedly prove to be a life-changing experience for each of us, and I’m honored to be with such an incredible group of explorers,” Lauren said in February 2025. “Most importantly, I am looking forward to all the women in this crew sharing their story and inspiring future generations to dream big.”

After the flight, Lauren greeted Jeff with a hug and called it a “profound” experience.

The fourth crew member aboard the Blue Origin flight was Kerianne Flynn, a film producer known for her work on independent films like The Automatic Hate (2015), This Changes Everything (2018) and Lilly (2024). She has long been passionate about space exploration and previously signed up to fly as a passenger on a Virgin Galactic spaceflight, although that expedition has yet to occur.

“Hopefully, myself and other future astronauts can use this experience to motivate the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators about the importance of taking care of our planet and living on it as one human race,” she said of her involvement in the Blue Origin flight in February 2025.

After the flight, Kerianne said she “almost felt as if I was watching a really intimate film.”

Aisha Bowe is a former NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur and a global STEM advocate. She is also the CEO of STEMBoard and the founder of LINGO, an education technology company. Ahead of the flight, Aisha said that she and her crewmates would be “expanding the art of possible” with their mission.

Aisha, who is Bahamian and American, held up a Bahamian flag after the flight as a “powerful reminder of the past, the present and the future of space.”

The final member of the Blue Origin flight crew was Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist. Amanda is a graduate of Harvard who did research at Harvard Center for Astrophysics, MIT, NASA and the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences.

“As the first Vietnamese woman to go to space, I’m flying for Vietnamese girls to see themselves in the stars,” she said in February 2025.

When the flight returned from its mission, Amanda said, “What a beautiful world we have. If I got there, you can get there, too.”