Pop star Katy Perry will be the biggest name in an all-female group set to touch the edge of space on Monday, roaring into the cosmos on one of billionaire Jeff Bezos’ rockets.
The “Firework” and “California Gurls” singer will be lofted more than 100km above the Earth’s surface in a vessel from Blue Origin, the space company owned by the Amazon founder.
Five other women including Bezos’ fiancee Lauren Sanchez will join the flight, slated to blast off from western Texas at around 19:30 (SA time).
Retro rocket
Their fully automated craft will rise vertically before the crew capsule detaches mid-flight, later falling back to the ground slowed by parachutes and a retro rocket.
Monday’s mission is the first all-female space crew since Valentina Tereshkova’s historic solo flight in 1963.
It is also the 11th sub-orbital crewed operation by Blue Origin, which has offered the space tourism experiences for several years.
The company does not publicly communicate the price of trips made possible by its New Shepard rocket.
Lasting around 10 minutes, the flight will bring the passengers beyond the Karman line – the internationally recognised boundary of space.
There will be a brief period when the women can unbuckle from their seats and float in zero gravity.
‘Inspiration’
Katy Perry recently told Elle magazine that she was taking part “for my daughter Daisy,” whom she shares with actor Orlando Bloom, “to inspire her to never have limits on her dreams.”
“I’m just so excited to see the inspiration through her eyes and the light in her eyes when she sees that rocket go, and she goes back to school the next day and says ‘Mom went to space’,” Perry added.
Perry, launched onto the international stage with her 2008 hit “I Kissed a Girl,” will sit alongside TV presenter Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe and Amanda Nguyen, founder of a campaign group against sexual violence.
They follow 52 previous Blue Origin passengers, including longtime “Star Trek” leading man William Shatner.
Such high-profile guests are intended to keep public interest in Blue Origin’s work, as it battles multiple rival firms in the space tourism field.
Bezos’ top challenger in passenger flights is Virgin Galactic, which offers a similar sub-orbital experience.
But Blue Origin aims in future to bring space tourists into orbit, competing directly with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
In January, Blue Origin’s much more powerful New Glenn rocket successfully completed its first unmanned orbital mission.
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By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse
