11-Minute Suborbital Journey Makes Music History
Katy Perry has officially become the first global pop singer to enter space after completing an 11-minute suborbital flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. She joined Lauren Sanchez, fiancée of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, along with four other women: former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, human rights activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and CBS broadcaster Gayle King.
The launch took place at Blue Origin’s West Texas site and crossed the Kármán line—the internationally recognized boundary of space approximately 100 kilometers above Earth. The crew experienced brief weightlessness and had panoramic views of Earth before landing safely in the Texas desert via parachute-assisted capsule descent.
Perry, emotional upon landing, kissed the ground and raised a daisy symbolizing female resilience and strength. She described the moment as being “deeply connected to love” and serenaded the planet with a line from Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” She revealed plans to write new music inspired by the experience.
The capsule, named “Tortoise,” featured a feather emblem—her mother’s nickname for her—which Perry said felt like a sign from the universe. The six-member all-female crew celebrated their milestone upon return, greeted personally by Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
