On February 27th, Blue Origin announced its plan for the forthcoming New Shepard’s 31st Mission. The American commercial aerospace company wants to fly the first all female crew into space this Spring. This mission named NS-31 will carry its six crew to experience weightlessness for a short duration before returning them to Earth. The NS-31 will become the first all female space mission since the historic first solo space mission of Soviet Pilot Valentina Tereshkova in 1963.
But unlike the Soviet solo space flight, Blue Origin plans to send six females to space in the Spring of 2025. The crew that will participate in the NS-31 spaceflight include Jeff Bezos’ fiancee Lauren Sánchez, Katy Perry, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, and Kerianne Flynn. Here’s everything you need to know about this crew.
Lauren Sánchez: The Planner of First All Female Space Mission
Lauren Sánchez is Jeff Bezos’ finance who planned the mission by bringing the crew together. She will lead the team to explore the stars and observe Earth from the outside. So, why did Lauren Sánchez appoint the leader of the team? Sánchez is a talented pilot with years of experience. She is also an Emmy Award-winning journalist, Vice Chair of the Bezos Earth Fun, and New York Times bestselling author.
Sánchez became a licensed helicopter pilot in 2016. She later founded Black Ops Aviation, an aerial film and production company. That was the first of its kind owned by a female. Sánchez’s dedication to the aviation industry enabled her to be awarded the Elling Halvorson Vertical Flight Hall of Fame Award in 2024. She hopes to inspire the next generation of space explorers through her forthcoming mission to space.
Katy Perry, the only musician in All Female Space Mission
Katy Perry is a popular name in the music industry with over 115 billion streams. When it comes to Capitol Records’ history, She is officially the biggest-selling female artist. Katy is also involved in other engagements including many philanthropic activities, the educational sector, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and many others.
Her desire to change the world has inspired her to do a lot of good things for humankind. Katy’s good choice of life made her earn a seat in Blue Origin’s NS-31, the first all-female crew space mission to low Earth orbit. She hopes that her first spaceflight to space will inspire her daughter and other young people to aim for the stars.
Aisha Bowe
Aisha Bowe, an ex-NASA rocket scientist, and businesswoman is part of the crew. Her ambition to change the world inspired her to establish STEMBoard, an engineering company. Aisha also founded LINGO, an edtech firm that equips millions of students with basic tech skills.
Coming from the Bahamas has given her the great courage to inspire Bahamians and other younger generations to reach for the stars from this mission. Despite building amazing companies that offer top-notch services to people Aisha still anticipates inspiring her people of Bahamas and the young people across the world with her first trip to space.
Amanda Nguyen
Amanda Nguyen, who is currently working as a bioastronautics research scientist is also part of the crew. She attended and graduated from Harvard before conducting research at the Harvard Center of Astrophysics to improve her scientific background. Amanda has also worked at NASA, MIT, and the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences.
Her background in science and engineering qualified her to work on NASA’s last shuttle mission, STS-135, and also Kepler missions to explore exoplanets. Ever since humans began to explore space, no Vietnamese or Southeast Asian woman has been to space.
However, this is about to change as Amanda is about to become the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman to reach space. Her historic works qualified her to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She has also received TIME’s Woman Award of the Year.
Gayle King
Gayle is the chief host of Gayle King in the House hosted on SiriusXM radio. She is also a successful journalist with many awards to her name. Gayle also works as a co-host of CBS Mornings and an editor-at-large of Oprah Daily.
She is a great interviewer who focuses on creating engaging conversations with anyone she is interviewing. Gayle hopes this new mission will inspire the next generation of explorers to dream bigger.
Kerianne Flynn
Kerianne Flynn is famous for her work in building nonprofit communities. She works with Allen-Stevenson School, The High Line, and Hudson River Park to touch lives and make the world a better place.
Her transformative works have changed lives. Kerianne Flynn also worked as a movie producer. Some of her movie works include This Changes Everything (2018), and LILLY(2024), among others. Kerianne hopes that her mission to space will inspire the next generations and space enthusiasts to dream bigger.
How the NS-31 All Female Space Mission Will Change How We Dream About Space
The forthcoming mission will be Blue Origin’s 11th human spaceflight for its New Shepard Program. The mission, scheduled to launch in Spring 2024 will become the 31st mission to be ever launched by the private aerospace company since it began to fly its New Shepard spacecraft.
The New Shepard program has carried 52 astronauts to space and flew them above the Kármán line, which is the internationally identified boundary between Earth and space. The new mission, which will fly six females to the edge of space will inspire more people to aim for the stars.
These civilian spaceflights are motivating other people to develop more interest in space. Hence, you don’t have to become an astronaut to travel to space in 2025. This implies that anyone can now fly to space as modern technologies have made it possible in recent times.
Next, we should expect people to travel to the moon, Mars, and beyond to make humans multi-planetary species.
