Katy Perry and Gayle King Are Going to Space

Pop superstar Katy Perry and broadcasting veteran Gayle King will swap microphones for spacesuits as part of the first all-female crew to venture beyond Earth’s atmosphere since 1963. Jeff Bezos‘ aerospace company, Blue Origin, announced Thursday that the two celebrities will join a historic six-woman team aboard the NS-31 mission, scheduled to launch in spring 2025. According to Variety, this groundbreaking flight marks the first entirely female crew to cross the Kármán line since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo journey more than six decades ago.

The mission’s roster also includes several other accomplished professionals: Bahamian-American aerospace engineer and former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe; civil rights activist and Rise founder Amanda Nguyen; film producer Kerianne Flynn; and helicopter pilot Lauren Sánchez, who is engaged to Blue Origin founder Bezos.

King, the 70-year-old CBS Mornings co-host, shared her mixed emotions about the upcoming adventure during Thursday’s broadcast. “I don’t know how to explain being terrified and excited at the same time. It’s like how I felt about to deliver a baby,” she said, adding that she consulted both her children and longtime friend Oprah Winfrey before committing to the spaceflight.

Sánchez, who authored the children’s book The Fly Who Flew to Space, was instrumental in assembling the crew. Blue Origin’s announcement credited her with having “brought the mission together,” stating she “is honored to lead a team of explorers on a mission that will challenge their perspectives of Earth, empower them to share their own stories, and create lasting impact that will inspire generations to come.”

This will be Blue Origin’s 11th human flight and 31st mission overall for its New Shepard program, named after Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space in 1961. The suborbital experience lasts approximately 10 minutes and reaches an altitude exceeding 62 miles – the internationally recognized boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. By comparison, the International Space Station orbits approximately 250 miles above Earth.

The upcoming flight continues Blue Origin’s tradition of including notable personalities on its missions. Previous passengers have included Star Trek actor William Shatner, who at 90 became the oldest person in space until Edward Dwight broke that record this year at the same age. Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan was also among the celebrities who experienced brief weightlessness aboard New Shepard.

Bezos himself participated in the company’s first crewed flight in 2021, demonstrating confidence in his fully reusable vehicle. The experience can be profoundly moving for participants – Shatner later wrote in his autobiography that the journey triggered “among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered,” according to Variety. While no specific launch date has been announced beyond spring 2025, the mission marks an important milestone in space tourism and female representation in aerospace.