Six women went on a Blue Origin flight as part of the 31st mission of the New Shepard suborbital spacecraft. Among them are the fiancee of Jeff Bezos founder Lauren Sanchez and singer Katy Perry. The launch, which was described in the press as "glamorous," was a success. Many experts interviewed by Izvestia considered the hype around the mission a marketing ploy, but some of them called the launch important for the development of private space exploration. For more information about starflight and its significance, see the Izvestia article.

Female suborbital flight

The launch of Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital spacecraft went smoothly. There was the first all-female crew on board since Valentina Tereshkova's flight in 1963. It includes singer Katy Perry, CBS Mornings TV presenter Gayle King, writer and bio-astronautical scientist Amanda Nguyen, CEO of STEMBoard and former NASA scientist Ayesha Bowe, film producer Keriann Flynn and mission director Lauren Sanchez, the fiancee of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.

— I believe that this mission is needed more to keep Blue Origin on the space tourism agenda. It has a marketing meaning. Plus, perhaps the mission includes working out technical solutions. In general, it is not new — the flight to the Karman line was completed more than 60 years ago," said Anton Alekseev, CEO of the Novy Kosmos Aerospace Corporation, market expert at the Aeronet National Technology Initiative.

The launch of the New Shepard spacecraft was the fourth in 2025. Blue Origin's statistics are credible — out of 32 space missions, 31 were successful, and the suborbital journey of the female crew was the ninth completed mission in a row. The only failed launch of a private NS-23 mission in the company's history took place without the participation of a live crew and ended with a malfunction of one of the boosters.

Before departure, Jeffrey Bezos gave parting words to the crew. In particular, he noted that he was looking forward to their return to see how the flight would change them.

— I'm happy for you, and I don't want to stay on earth. I want to fly with you. I love everyone, with God's help," said the billionaire. Soon he was hugging his fiancee Lauren Sanchez again.

According to Lauren Sanchez, after returning to Earth, she looked at the world with different eyes. She realized that all boundaries are insignificant. These states, these states that divide us, they are insignificant, she said.

The broadcast captured all the details of the journey, including the screams of the girls on their way back to earth. In particular, Katy Perry screamed "My God!", a fragment of the recording with this cry quickly gained popularity on foreign social networks. The flight itself lasted 11 minutes, and it ended with the successful return of the crew without any injuries or accidents.

— From a technical point of view, New Shepard suborbital flights are a proven technology: automated launch, capsule launch to an altitude of 100+ km (near the Pocket line), 3-4 minutes of weightlessness and parachute landing. The main thing here is not innovation, but stability and security as the basis for a mass product. Crew training takes only a couple of days — this is a fundamentally new paradigm: from astronauts to passengers," Yaroslav Meshalkin, technology expert and managing partner of the Heads'made digital communications agency, told Izvestia.

What is the mission of New Shepard with Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez on board

Yaroslav Meshalkin is convinced that the flight of the female crew aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard is a symbolic, cultural and strategically balanced event.

— Behind the glossy facade of the bachelorette party and jokes about false eyelashes, there is a subtle and quite conscious work to promote private space, inclusivity and, not least, the Jeff Bezos brand. This is not just a tourist suborbital flight, it is an influencer mission," the specialist emphasized.

According to a communications expert, when Katy Perry, Gayle King and other media personalities participate in a flight, the audience is measured not in thousands, as in the case of traditional space launches, but in hundreds of millions. And packaging space in the format of a "space party" is an effective way to expand the cultural zone of attraction of the industry, which until recently was perceived as a club for engineers and billionaires.

It is also important to emphasize the gender aspect — with the exception of Tereshkova, an all—female crew in space is almost a unique event. Lauren Sanchez's initiative is not just a PR step, it is a manifesto: women should be not only in science and engineering, but also in the faces of the future of space.

It is important for Blue Origin to show that they are still involved in the space race. And the female crew gives a powerful information boost to Jeff Bezos' flight program, said Andrey Slavyansky, a development engineer and lecturer at the Faculty of Technological Entrepreneurship at Synergy University.

— From the point of view of space exploration, this is an insignificant step. It can only be important as a source of additional information for carrying out such flights in the future, when manned ships for tourists and travelers may appear in low—Earth orbit," the expert noted.

This launch can be called rather an image story, this flight is interesting because the crew consists purely of women.

— But I would generally launch some kind of space reality show in their place. It would be much more interesting for the public. It would be such a business model, you know. And space tourists are not as rare now as they were many years ago. Julia Peresild flew into space to shoot the film "The Challenge". Has her career taken off dramatically? I wouldn't say that. It is possible, of course, that Katy Perry will be dragged through some super commercial broadcasts after that," says music critic Evgeny Babichev.

As for our artists, there are many girls on the Russian stage in excellent physical shape, any of them could, could be sent into space — these are Klava Coca, Lucy Chebotina, Polina Gagarina, and other artists, producer Pavel Rudchenko noted in a conversation with Izvestia.