Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' space outfit Blue Origin is planning to make history in less than a week by sending an all-female crew on a spaceflight. The American spacecraft company's 11th human mission, NS-31, is made up of NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, film producer Kerianne Flynn, CBS host Gayle King, Bezos' fiancé and former journalist Lauren Sánchez, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyễn and pop singer Katy Perry.
The company is eyeing a liftoff date of April 14, with the launch window opening at 8:30 a.m. CDT, depending on weather and other factors. According to the Blue Origin website, the astronauts will ascend toward space at more than three times the speed of sound. Once they pass the Kármán line, the crew can unbuckle and float weightless before returning to Earth.
Blue Origin's New Shepard program has flown 52 people above the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space about 62 miles above Earth.
First all-female crew since a Russian solo space flight
The flight will mark the first all-female crew since Russian engineer Valentina Tereshkova's solo spaceflight in 1963.
Bowe told Elle magazine in an interview published this week that she's "been training for and waiting for this moment my entire life." Nguyen agreed, calling it "a dream come true."
Reactions among the others varied:
"I have wanted to go to space for almost 20 years," Perry said during the interview with Elle.
"I had a lot of trepidation -- I still do -- but I also know it's very interesting to be terrified and excited at the same time," King told Elle. "I can honestly say it has never been a dream of mine."
Blue Origin has taken many notable names up above the Earth before, including actor William Shatner, Good Morning America host and retired NFL player Michael Strahan and Bezos.