USA Bezos launches Katy Perry and his own partner into space
The partner of multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos flies into space together with pop star Katy Perry - in Bezos' rocket. What sounds like the beginning of an average joke has now happened in America.
14.04.2025, 16:18
14.04.2025, 16:58
SDA
In the livestream, the astronauts of the all-female crew could be heard shouting and celebrating with joy at an altitude of over 100 kilometers. One person on board seemed to shout: "We're in space!"
At an altitude of 105 kilometers in minutes
The "New Shepard" took Perry and Lauren Sánchez together with US presenter Gayle King, scientists Aisha Bowe and Amanda Nguyen and entrepreneur Kerianne Flynn to a maximum altitude of 105 kilometers above the Earth. The capsule from the space company Blue Origin touched down safely on Earth after just 10:22 minutes. The maximum speed on the way into space was around 3,600 kilometers per hour.
"I have dreamed for 15 years that I would fly into space," Perry ("Firework", "Roar", "I Kissed a Girl") wrote before the launch. She also announced that she wanted to sing in zero gravity - after landing, it became clear that the 40-year-old actually performed a few lines of the hit "What a wonderful World" in space.
Kiss for the desert floor
She had already covered Louis Armstrong's song at concerts before. "I had no idea that one day I would decide to sing a bit of it in space," said Perry. After landing, she knelt on the desert floor and kissed the sand.
After the successful landing, Bezos personally opened the hatch of the space capsule. Sánchez then described her view of the earth from space as follows: "It was quiet, but at the same time very lively. And you look at it and think: we're all in the same boat. That's all I can think about: We're so connected, more connected than you think."
Lauren Sánchez designed the blue spacesuits for the NS-31 mission in collaboration with the New York fashion label Monse.
Offer for tourists
The rocket launches in the Texan desert near Van Horn and flies largely automatically. Blue Origin has been offering short trips for space tourists for several years. Before the current launch, ten of these trips had already been successfully completed, with a total of 52 people reportedly taking part.
Founder Bezos himself was on board the first flight in 2021. Other private space travel companies - such as Virgin Galactic from British entrepreneur Richard Branson or SpaceX from tech billionaire Elon Musk - have similar offers.
Price not known
Blue Origin does not officially disclose the price of the trips. Estimates range from several hundred thousand dollars. The company has repeatedly taken celebrities along as guests of honor for PR purposes - for example, Canadian actor William Shatner, who became world-famous for his role as Captain Kirk in "Star Trek".
Comedian Pete Davidson canceled a flight planned for 2022. Once again, it can be assumed that not all participants paid, at least not the full price.
A burden on the environment
There was a lot of criticism before the start. US actress Olivia Munn recently said in a TV interview that there are so many more important things in the world right now. The whole thing seemed "insatiable" to her.
Many scientists have been criticizing space tourism for some time, especially on climate grounds. Every rocket launch is a burden on the environment, said Europe's former head of space travel Jan Wörner recently on Berlin radio station rbb24 Inforadio.
