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Blue Origin crew including Katy Perry safely returns to Earth after space flight

All-female crew led by Jeff Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sánchez lands in Texas after reaching the edge of outer space

Six women – including the pop star Katy Perry and morning TV host Gayle King – safely completed a trip to the edge of outer space and back from a private Texas ranch on Monday morning on a rocket belonging to Jeff Bezos, the Amazon co-founder and commercial space flight entrepreneur.

The women, who also included Bezos’s fiancee, Lauren Sánchez, made the trip to the Kármán line – the internationally recognized boundary of space – to float about, weightlessly, in the rocket’s capsule for three minutes before returning to Earth.

“Yeah baby, go for launch,” a mission controller could be heard saying shortly before the single-engine New Shepard rocket blasted off on time, at 8.30am local time (9.30am ET and 13.30am GMT).

King’s longtime friend, the TV talkshow host Oprah Winfrey, was on hand in Texas for the launch. Winfrey remarked that, for King, “this is bigger than just going to space” and “more than just overcoming fear”.

“Life is about continuing into grow into the fullest expression of yourself,” Winfrey said.

The talkshow queen could later be seen rubbing her eyes as the rocket reached its maximum ascent velocity of 2,300mph – or Mach 3. A commentator remarked that the vehicle was rising into the atmosphere ahead of “a stream of steam”.

As the rocket reached its highest point, about 62 miles (100km) above the Earth, a passenger could be heard to exclaim: “Oh my goddess.” Another could be heard saying: “I love you, Jeff Bezos.”

On the way back down to Earth, more screaming could be heard. The capsule, detached from its booster, made a soft landing on the Texas plains, two miles from the launchpad.

“Congratulations, and welcome back to Earth,” the commentator said. “Everybody just as ecstatic to be back on Earth.”

Sánchez’s fiance later opened the hatch to welcome her back to Earth, followed by her crewmates. The billionaire greeted each with a hug and kiss.

Perry, holding a daisy, kissed the ground with King. In a post-flight interview, Sánchez said: “The Earth was so quiet but also really alive. We are all in this together, and some connected. It makes me just want to hug everybody.”

“I had to come back,” Sánchez, who is set to marry Bezos this summer in Venice, added tearfully. “I wanted to come back. I’m getting married.”

The alternative, she said, “would be a bummer for me”.

On her return to earth, Perry said Monday’s flight had been “the highest high”.

“It’s about surrender to the unknown, it’s trust, and this whole journey is about more than going to space,” Perry remarked. It’s up there with meditation.

“This is up there.”

She added: “What you’re doing is really finding the love for yourself. I’m really feeling that divine feminine right now.”

Perry, 40, said last week she was listening to an audiobook of Cosmos by Carl Sagan and reading a book on string theory in preparation for the ride.

“I’ve always been interested in astrophysics and interested in astronomy and astrology and the stars,” she told the Associated Press. “We are all made of stardust, and we all come from the stars.”

The pop star also said that she planned to channel “that feminine divine that I was born with” to prepare for the new experience.

Before liftoff, King – who co-hosts CBS Mornings – said she was approaching the rocket trip with trepidation. “I still get very uncomfortable when people say ‘astronaut’,” she said. “I in no means feel like an astronaut. They said: ‘But, Gayle, if you go to space, you’re an astronaut.”

The pair, along with the former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn, traveled as the guests of Sánchez.

The flight was the 11th human flight for the New Shepard program, which has flown 52 people, including repeat astronauts, to the Kármán line.

Some critics have questioned whether the all-female trip is a moment of feminist progress since it comes as promotion for Bezos’s space tourism business that, in turn, is the marketing arm of Blue Origin’s commercial launch program.

The US actor Olivia Munn called the trip “a bit gluttonous” during a guest hosting appearance on Today with Jenna & Friends on CBS rival NBC.

“I know this is not the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now,” Munn said. “What are you guys going to do up in space?”

Author: Edward Helmore

Source: The Guardian

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