Featured Image Credit: Blue Origin
Katy Perry was among five other females who caught a rare sight of our planet aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard today.
The successful 11-minute journey marks the first all-female trip to space since Valentina Tereshkova's solo spaceflight in 1963.
The crew soared past the Kármán line - about 62 miles above Earth - before floating in microgravity and taking in the view.
Alongside Perry was journalist Gayle King, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, research scientist Amanda Nguyen, businesswoman Kerianne Flynn, and Jeff Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sánchez.
Advert
However, the trip wasn't without prior backlash, with some critics accusing Perry of 'sucking up' to Bezos and 'gushing over a billionaire joyride like it’s some noble cause.' Meanwhile, one actress called the trip wasteful spending and questioned the necessity of the commercial expedition.
Now, the all-female crew is back on solid ground, but the abrupt landing put viewers in shock.
Sharing the video of the landing on X, one user wrote: "katy perry is back and alive! no way they dropped them like that". The video clip shows the capsule travelling around 10 to 15mph before a pretty unsmooth landing. The orange and blue parachute opened and the capsule kicked up smoke and dust as it hit the desert floor.
Some viewers called the landing 'crazy' and said things like: "Ouch!! Glad they're safe, though."
Someone else chimed in: "It's just a Disney ride for the rich".
Once they landed, billionaire and Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos opened the hatch to welcome the crew back. Feeling the moment, Perry took a moment to kneel and kiss the ground. Later on, Gayle King admitted that she couldn't 'believe what she saw' when she was way up high, despite her looking 'miserable' beforehand.
The crew didn’t need intense training for the flight since their four-minute journey into space was fully automated.
According to Sky News science correspondent Thomas Moore, each passenger paid a £115,000 ($152,137) deposit, though the full cost of a ticket hasn’t been revealed. That’s led Moore to say space tourism is 'only for the super rich at the moment,'
Similarly, space journalist Kate Arkless Gray described that it was a 'shame' that such a historical event was a 'commercial mission.' She explained: "I still think we're a little bit far away from the time when we see an all-female crew launching perhaps to the International Space Station, and that does sadden me a bit, to be honest."
