Mission accomplished.
The capsule carrying Katy Perry and the other five women of Blue Originβs all-female space crew has touched down.
American popstar Katy Perry and Lauren SΓ‘nchez, partner of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, have returned after a flight to the edge of space aboard Blue Originβs New Shepard spacecraft, the space company owned by Bezos.
After floating and celebrating for a few minutes in space, the six women of the all-female NS-31 suborbital flight crew returned to Earth. The New Shepard capsule landed as planned in the Texas desert, deploying its three parachutes. Operations are underway to open the hatch and allow the six passengers to disembark.
It was an all-female journey for Perry and SΓ‘nchez. Joining them were women from diverse backgrounds β TV host Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe β forming the first all-female space crew since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova in 1963. Their mission: to explore gravity and inspire new generations to redefine the role of women in space. βWeβre bringing glam to space,β the crew declared.
The spacecraft launched from the Texas site at 8:30 a.m. local time. The fully automated rocket took off vertically, and the capsule separated from the booster before descending back to Earth, slowed by parachutes and a retro-thruster.
The suborbital flight lasts just over 10 minutes and reaches an altitude of 100 kilometers, taking the six passengers just past the KΓ‘rmΓ‘n line, the invisible boundary between Earthβs atmosphere and outer space. Blue Originβs crew had the chance to briefly unbuckle and float in microgravity before returning to the Texas desert with a parachute-assisted landing.