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The broadcast journalist Gayle King and the singer Katy Perry made a brief trip into space on Monday on a flight operated by Jeff Bezos\u2019 private company, Blue Origin. It was the first time an all-female crew had been to space since 1963.<\/p>\n
Their flight, on Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard rocket, lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds and took off from Blue Origin\u2019s Launch Site One in West Texas, about 120 miles southeast of El Paso at 8:30 a.m. local time.<\/p>\n
After the flight, Ms. King exited the crew capsule and said, \u201cI would just like to have a moment with the ground,\u201d before kneeling.<\/p>\n
Ms. King had spoken before the launch about being afraid of the trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stepped out of my comfort zone in a way that I never thought was possible for me,\u201d Ms. King said. \u201cAnd now that I\u2019ve done it, I really do feel I can take on anything, anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ms. King said that Ms. Perry sang \u201cWhat a Wonderful World\u201d during the flight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about singing my songs, it\u2019s about a collective energy in there,\u201d Ms. Perry said after they returned to Earth.<\/p>\n
It was the 11th human flight for the New Shepard program, which had previously flown 52 people, including repeat astronauts, above the K\u00e1rm\u00e1n line, the internationally recognized boundary of space about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth.<\/p>\n
Flights on the New Shepard rocket, which provide for a few minutes of weightlessness, do not have a pilot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Before the launch on Monday, \u201cCBS Mornings\u201d dedicated a large portion of its broadcast to \u201cGayle Goes to Space.\u201d Between the show\u2019s typical morning news updates, there was footage from Texas and interviews with people who had been to space, including on Blue Origin flights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Family members and friends of the flight\u2019s passengers gathered in Texas to watch the launch, including Oprah Winfrey, Ms. King\u2019s close friend. Kris Jenner, the matriarch of the Kardashian family, and her daughter, Khlo\u00e9 Kardashian, were also in the crowd.<\/p>\n
Mr. Bezos\u2019 fianc\u00e9e, Lauren S\u00e1nchez, a former broadcast journalist, was also on board the flight, called the NS-31 mission. The couple\u2019s wedding is reportedly set for this summer in Venice.<\/p>\n
The other passengers were Aisha Bowe, a former rocket scientist at NASA who told Elle magazine that she is the first person of Bahamian heritage to go to space; Kerianne Flynn, a film producer; and Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist and prominent advocate for sexual assault survivors.<\/p>\n
Ms. Nguyen was the first Vietnamese woman to go to space, according to Blue Origin.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true, and for me it was a dream deferred,\u201d Ms. Nguyen told Elle.<\/p>\n
She said that she had worked at NASA and studied astrophysics, but turned her focus to activism after she was sexually assaulted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cGender-based violence is a big reason why so many women in STEM don\u2019t continue on with their training, and I was one of those women,\u201d she said, referring to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.<\/p>\n
It was the first spaceflight to have an all-female crew since Valentina Tereshkova flew solo in 1963 for the Soviet Union on the Vostok 6 and became the first woman to reach space.<\/p>\n
But some critics have chafed at the suggestion that the all-female crew represented a moment of feminist progress. The New Shepard program, the centerpiece of Blue Origin\u2019s space tourism business, is an avenue for the wealthy, powerful and well-connected to go to space.<\/p>\n
Olivia Munn, an actress, called the trip \u201ca bit gluttonous\u201d during a guest hosting appearance on \u201cToday with Jenna & Friends\u201d this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know this is not the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now,\u201d Ms. Munn said. \u201cWhat are you guys going to do up in space?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In an interview on \u201cCBS Mornings\u201d aired on Friday, a host, Vladimir Duthiers, asked Ms. King if she was concerned that the flight was an advertisement for Mr. Bezos, the founder of Amazon. Mr. Duthiers noted that Mr. Bezos has been under scrutiny because of business practices at Amazon and his ownership of The Washington Post.<\/p>\n
Warehouse workers and delivery drivers for Amazon have complained about unsafe working conditions. In 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and 17 states sued Amazon, accusing it of protecting a monopoly over online retail.<\/p>\n
At The Washington Post, there has been a wave of resignations in recent months amid concerns about leadership, including Mr. Bezos\u2019 decision to reorient the newspaper\u2019s opinion section to advocate \u201cpersonal liberties and free markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, it is troubling to me, too,\u201d Ms. King said. \u201cThere have been some questions and decisions that he\u2019s made that I\u2019ve actually gone, \u2018huh?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think in this particular case, Vlad, this is so much bigger than one man and one company,\u201d she continued. \u201cI\u2019ve chosen to separate the two.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mr. Bezos has spent billions of dollars on Blue Origin and has spoken about how he envisions a future where humans live in colonies in space. He was on Blue Origin\u2019s first suborbital passenger flight in 2021.<\/p>\n
The New Shepard rocket is named after Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space in 1961 and one of the astronauts who walked on the moon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n