EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Space technology company Blue Origin is scheduled to launch an all-female flight into space Monday morning, April 14 from its West Texas launch site outside of Van Horn.
The launch window begins at 7:30 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time.
The flight passengers are: singer/pop star Katy Perry; journalist Gayle King; civil rights activist and research scientist Amanda Nguyen; former NASA scientist and entrepreneur Aisha Bowe; film producer Kerianne Flynn; and journalist Lauren Sanchez, who also is the fiancee of Amazon and Blue origin founder Jeff Bezos.
The flight will take them up to the Karman line, which is the internationally recognized boundary of space.
They will be traveling on Blue Origin’s New Shepard, the company’s fully reusable, suborbital rocket system built for humans.
Here is what Blue Origin had to say about its New Shepard system, which was named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
“During the 11-minute journey, astronauts soar past the Kármán line (100 km/62 miles), the internationally recognized boundary of space, experiencing several minutes of weightlessness and witnessing life-changing views of Earth. The vehicle is fully autonomous — there are no pilots.”
This will be Blue Origin’s 11th human flight and 31st overall.
Liftoff will be from the space technology company’s Launch Site One, which is about 30 miles north of Van Horn.
Many are dubbing this the first all-female space flight.
That is not accurate. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space when she orbited the Earth in June 1963. It was a solo flight for Tereshkova.
Tereshkova spent almost three days in space during her solo mission.
According to Space.com, Tereshkova remains the youngest woman to fly to space, the only female astronaut or cosmonaut to make a solo space journey and the first civilian to go to space.
Here is a link to Blue Origin’s website where you can watch a webcast of the countdown and mission.
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