posted 02-27-2025 08:11 AM               

Blue Origin Announces Crew For New Shepard's 31st Mission

New Shepard's 11th Human Flight, NS-31, Will Launch This Spring with Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez

Blue Origin today announced the six people flying on its NS-31 mission. The crew includes Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez, who brought the mission together. She is honored to lead a team of explorers on a mission that will challenge their perspectives of Earth, empower them to share their own stories, and create lasting impact that will inspire generations to come.

Meet the NS-31 Crew

• Aisha Bowe
  Aisha is a former NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur, and global STEM advocate. She is the CEO of STEMBoard, an engineering firm recognized twice on the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies, and the founder of LINGO, an edtech company on a mission to equip one million students with essential tech skills. Of Bahamian heritage, Aisha hopes her journey from community college to space will inspire young people in the Bahamas and around the world to pursue their dreams.
  
  
• Amanda Nguyen
  Amanda is a bioastronautics research scientist. She graduated from Harvard, and conducted research at Harvard Center for Astrophysics, MIT, NASA, and International Institute for Astronautical Sciences. Amanda worked on the last NASA shuttle mission, STS-135, and the Kepler exoplanet mission. For her advocacy for sexual violence survivors, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and awarded TIME's Woman of the Year. As the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman astronaut, Amanda's flight is a symbol of reconciliation between the United States and Vietnam, and will highlight science as a tool for peace.
  
  
• Gayle King
  Gayle is an award-winning journalist, co-host of CBS Mornings, editor-at-large of Oprah Daily, and the host of Gayle King in the House on SiriusXM radio. In a career spanning decades, King has been recognized as a gifted, compassionate interviewer able to break through the noise and create meaningful conversations. As someone who is staying open to new adventures, even ones that scare her, Gayle is honored to be part of Blue Origin's first all-female flight team and is looking forward to stepping out of her comfort zone.
  
  
• Katy Perry
  Katy is the biggest-selling female artist in Capitol Records' history and one of the best-selling music artists of all time with over 115 billion streams. Aside from being a global pop superstar, Katy is an active advocate of many philanthropic causes, including as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador where she uses her powerful voice to ensure every child's right to health, education, equality, and protection, and her own Firework Foundation, which empowers children from underserved communities by igniting their inner light through the arts. Katy is honored to be a part of Blue Origin's first all-female crew and hopes her journey encourages her daughter and others to reach for the stars, literally and figuratively.
  
  
• Kerianne Flynn
  After a successful career in fashion and human resources, Kerianne Flynn has spent the last decade channeling her energy into community-building through board service and nonprofit work with The Allen-Stevenson School, The High Line, and Hudson River Park. Passionate about the transformative power of storytelling, Kerianne has produced thought-provoking films such as This Changes Everything (2018), which explores the history of women in Hollywood, and LILLY (2024), a powerful tribute to fair-pay advocate Lilly Ledbetter. Kerianne has always been drawn to exploration, adventure, and space, and hopes her Blue Origin space flight serves as an inspiration for her son, Dex, and the next generation of dreamers to reach for the stars.
  
  
• Lauren Sánchez
  Lauren is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, New York Times bestselling author, pilot, Vice Chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, and mother of three. In 2016, Sánchez, a licensed helicopter pilot, founded Black Ops Aviation, the first female-owned and operated aerial film and production company. Sánchez released her New York Times bestselling debut children's book, The Fly Who Flew to Space, in 2024. Her work in aviation earned her the Elling Halvorson Vertical Flight Hall of Fame Award in 2024 for her expertise as a helicopter pilot and aviation businesswoman. Sánchez's goal is to inspire the next generation of explorers.

This mission will be the 11th human flight for the New Shepard program and the 31st in its history. To date, the program has flown 52 people above the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. This is the first all-female flight crew since Valentina Tereshkova's solo spaceflight in 1963.

The flight will launch this spring.

posted 04-03-2025 07:42 AM               

A pop star, two journalists, a rocket scientist, an activist, and a filmmaker walk into a room. That may sound like the setup for a punchline, but it's actually the all-star lineup of Blue Origin's historic all-female space crew, which includes Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, and Kerianne Flynn.

Fittingly, it's the third week of Women's History Month when the group assembles in person for the very first time at their ELLE cover shoot, and everywhere you look, people are buzzing with excitement, ready to write the next chapter. "We're a crew!" the women shout in unison once they meet.

Each is rocking her version of an all-black power look. There are fitted pantsuits, deep V-cuts, embellishments down the sides of sleeves and pants, touches of leather, and towering stiletto heels. As they huddle, the charged energy filling the air hints that the reality of the thrilling mission is beginning to sink in. There had been a couple of one-on-one hangouts and video calls ahead of this meeting, but this marks their first chance to gather together as a team with the only other women on Earth who could understand how they are feeling.

posted 04-14-2025 09:36 AM               

• The crew capsule reached an apogee of 346,802 ft AGL / 350,449 ft MSL (106 km AGL / 107 km MSL).

• The booster reached an apogee of 346,481 ft AGL / 350,128 ft MSL (106 km AGL / 107 km MSL).

• Official launch time was 8:30:00 AM CDT / 13:30:00 UTC.

• Capsule landing occurred at 8:40:21 AM CDT / 13:40:21 UTC.

• The mission elapsed time was 10 minutes, 21 seconds.

posted 04-14-2025 12:21 PM               

Blue Origin's New Shepard Rocket Completes 31st Mission To Space

Blue Origin successfully completed its 11th human spaceflight for the New Shepard program. The astronaut crew included Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez, who brought the mission together.

Including today's crew, New Shepard has now flown 58 people to space, including four people who have flown twice.

"What a privilege to witness this crew of trailblazers depart the capsule today," said Phil Joyce, Senior Vice President, New Shepard. "Each of these women is a storyteller who will use their voices—individually and together—to channel their life-changing experience today into creating lasting impact that will inspire people across our planet for generations. Thank you to this remarkable crew for uplifting so many on their historic journey toward the stars and back."

posted 04-14-2025 02:53 PM               

Replay: New Shepard Mission NS-31 Press Conference

posted 04-15-2025 05:06 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
The astronaut crew...

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posted 04-15-2025 07:00 PM               

The Association of Space Explorers recognizes Blue Origin's New Shepard passengers as astronauts by including them as eligible for the Universal Astronaut pin (suborbital version).

The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is the world's ruling body for aeronautical and astronautical records. As such, they have a definition for who and who is not an astronaut, and as cited on their website, it is a function of altitude.

posted 04-16-2025 12:45 AM            

But the mainstream media coverage, even here in Britain, was unexpected. I suppose the participation of two American celebrities, Katy Perry and Gayle King, made it newsworthy (like Jeff Bezos's tumble after they touched down).

Most critics missed the point however: NS-31 was pure and simply space tourism. That rocket is only designed to reach the edge of space so the capsule occupants can enjoy the view and experience three minutes of weightlessness. They reached 65 miles, so by all definitions are astronauts, just like some X-15 pilots in the 1960s.

posted 04-16-2025 09:25 AM               

There has been a lot of comment about Blue Origin's flight this week.

In amongst the noise and media attention given to some of the more well known passengers, it's important to highlight that onboard there were two incredible STEM ambassadors.

Aisha Bowe is an award winning aerospace engineer and STEM tech entrepreneur and CEO. Amanda Nguyễn is a bioastronautics research scientist, civil rights activist and campaigner who has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The discussions as to whether these very short duration flights add much value beyond getting people to talk about space will go on and are valuable to have. They shouldn't distract from the important work that is ongoing with space-based R&D and STEM advocacy by people for whom this is their lifelong career and passion.

posted 04-16-2025 06:08 PM               

I really resent that people are calling it a ride.

We duplicated the trajectory of Alan Shepard's flight back in the day. No one called that a "ride." A ride sounds frivolous. It sounds insignificant.

This was a bona fide flight. I don't like people trying to minimalizing what was done here.

posted 04-16-2025 07:36 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by mercsim:
Comparing just the G profile, it was nothing like Shepard's flight.

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King admits to a fear of flight, probably does not have Shepard's high g training and experience, is probably not familiar with the technical aspects of aircraft, and did not go through the same selection and training process for flight.

posted 04-17-2025 09:40 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by ejectr:
Who would care or pay attention to Jane Doe being a passenger.

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Which certainly was just validated by the lack of media on the Fram2 mission which in my opinion should have been media rich.

posted 04-19-2025 11:47 AM               

It wasn't until the space shuttle program that NASA distinguished between astronaut candidates and astronauts. Sure, they had silver and gold astronaut pins, but both were astronaut pins.

X-15 pilots only became "astronauts" after they flew past a certain altitude. It had nothing to do with their level of experience or that they were in control of the rocket plane at the time. They earned their astronaut badge because they had exceeded 50 miles (80 kilometers) in altitude.

SpaceX designed its Dragon spacecraft to never need the input or control of anyone on board on a nominal flight. NASA and international career astronauts have flown to and from the space station without having to do anything more than monitoring flat panel displays, yet we do not suggest they are passengers or travelers or any other term than "astronauts."

posted 04-19-2025 04:31 PM               

They do go under some of the same training as NASA astronauts, including becoming familiar with the sounds the rocket and spacecraft will make; knowing when to prepare for increased g-levels; learning how to egress and ingress their seat and strap themselves in; and basics of maneuvering in microgravity. They do not need to learn how to fly the spacecraft, because the spacecraft flies itself.

posted 04-23-2025 05:04 PM               

Put another way: If these passengers are considered to be astronauts, then shouldn't everyone of us who gets in and travels by airplane, be considered an aviator?

Actually, I might just use this to my advantage.

I retired from the US Air Force as a MSgt (E-7); and back when I was a junior Airman, I got an incentive ride in a T-37 Tweet. I actually took the controls and flew the airplane for a while; even did a couple of aileron rolls. I had previously spent a semester in junior college, taking a basic aeronautics course.

posted 04-23-2025 08:50 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by SpaceSteve:
...then shouldn't everyone of us who gets in and travels by airplane, be considered an aviator?

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