Katy Perry blasts off to space today — here's how to watch
Taking the title of worldwide popstar to new levels
Katy Perry - the pop queen of the 2010s and the face of Just Eat - is the latest member set to head to space today. Although this sounds like the start of some laborious dad joke, it is actually part of Jeff Bezos’ new space tourism rocket.
Katy Perry joins five other women - including Bezos’ financé Lauren Sanchez - in Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. The rocket is set to lift off from its launch site in West Texas around 08.30 (14:30 for us Brits). Blue Origin will air on a YouTube stream and on its website, and from our friends at Space.com. The launch will also be broadcast on CBS and streamed live on Paramount+.
Joining Perry on board are Gayle King - co-host of CBS Mornings, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen, and movie producer Kerianne Flynn. So, it seems that if you’re hoping to join the interstellar lineup, you’ll need to have a fairly impressive CV to say the least. It will be the first spaceflight to have an all-female crew since Valentina Tereshkova flew solo in 1963.
The flight is not exactly a long haul (unless things go really wrong), as it’s currently set to last around 11 minutes. The crew will travel more than 100km above earth, and this will take them across the internationally recognised boundary of space. And yes, this means they should experience zero-gravity weightlessness for a few moments. The rocket will detach from the top capsule (which will be holding the crew) at around 250,000ft / 76km and will continue to roughly 350,000ft / 106km. It will land with a parachute-assist for a soft-landing whilst the rocket booster will separate and land itself around two miles away from the launch site.
If you were wondering who the pilots are, there aren’t any; the spacecraft, as well as being reusable is fully autonomous meaning that the crew also will not be needing to operate the vehicle.
On her social media, Katy Perry said: "If you had told me that I would be part of the first-ever all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child. Although we didn't grow up with much, I never stopped looking at the world with hopeful WONDER!"
Blue Origin was founded in 2000 by Bezos, and whilst they haven’t released full ticket prices for this type of tourist flight, there is a $150,000 deposit to reserve a seat, which probably makes the holiday to Tenerife you’re considering seem a lot more reasonable.
As per US law, the astronauts are required to complete comprehensive training for their specific roles. Blue Origin confirmed its New Shepard passengers are trained over two days with a focus on physical fitness, emergency protocols, details about the safety measures, and procedures for zero gravity.
Main image credit: Blue Origin
