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Katy Perry and five other women have safely returned to Earth after they were blasted into space on an all-female rocket launch.
Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos’s partner, was also sent to space on board the rocket made by Blue Origin, the Amazon founder’s private space company.
It is the first mission to space entirely crewed by women for more than six decades. The crew was chosen by Sanchez, and also included CBS Mornings presenter Gayle King, former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, astronaut and activist Amanda Nguyen and movie producer Kerianne Flynn.
Watched by celebrities including Khloe Kardashian, Oprah and Bezos himself, the six were launched from Blue Origin’s launchpad in West Texas Monday morning. “I don’t think I realized how emotional it was going to be,” Kardashian said on the company’s livestream.
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Oprah visibly wept as her best friend, TV presenter Gayle King, flew at almost 2,000 miles per hour off the Earth and experienced zero gravity. Inside the capsule, the new astronauts could be heard exclaiming at their view of the Moon and the experience of floating around the capsule.
Just over 10 minutes after they were shot into space, the crew of six successfully landed back down in the desert.
After being met by a ground crew that included Bezos, the six women then left the ship. Perry raised her hands as she left the capsule before kissing the ground.
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Sanchez was visibly emotional as she left the capsule. “I don’t think you can describe it. It was, like, quiet, but then also really alive. You look at [the Earth] and you’re like, ‘We’re all in this together.’ We’re so connected. More connected than you realize,” she said. “All these things that divide us but we’re not.”
When asked how she was feeling, Sanchez said: “Complete and utter joy and gratefulness. It makes me want to come back and hug everyone…we’re in this together. I didn’t expect to be this emotional.”
Sanchez was filmed embracing Bezos and afterward joked that she “had to come back” because of the couple’s upcoming wedding.
Meanwhile King, who said she couldn’t accept being called an “astronaut” after the brief jaunt in space, said that the mission had been a reminder to “do better and be better human beings.”
“It’s so nasty and so vitriolic nowadays,” King continued. “I mean, everybody could experience that peace that we’ve had up there, and the kindness and what it takes to do what we did all the people that it took to get us up there and get us back safely…I’ll never, ever, ever, forget.”
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She also revealed that Perry had sung ‘What A Wonderful World’ after the crew had returned to their seats after experiencing zero gravity.
Speaking after being blasted into space, Perry, whose daughter Daisy was watching, said that the experience was “second to being a mom.”
“That’s why it was hard for me to go, because that’s all my love right there,” she said after landing back down to Earth. “And I have to surrender and trust that the universe is going to take care of me and protect me, and also my family, my daughter, because, like, I’m full up from being able to get that gift to be… being a mom and and to go to space is incredible, and I wanted to model courage and worthiness and fearlessness.”
Blue Origin Flight NS-31 is the first launch with an all-female crew since Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo space flight in 1963.
The company has sent a range of celebrities – including Bezos himself – into space as part of promotion for what it hopes will eventually become a regular form of commercial space tourism.
