Before Launch
On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin NS-31 successfully launched into space. This marked the 11th human space flight and 31st overall—hence the mission’s name—for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company. The Blue Origin NS-31 was the first all-female flight crew for Blue Origin and the first since Soviet astronaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo flight in 1963.
Inside the spacecraft’s capsule sat Blue Origin NS-31’s first all-female flight crew: helicopter pilot and Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sanchez; CBS journalist Gayle King; former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe; bioastronautics research scientist and activist Amanda Nguyễn; filmmaker Kerianne Flynn; and global artist Katy Perry.
In anticipation of Gayle King going to space, CBS’s morning show, CBS Mornings, dedicated a segment titled “Gayle Goes To Space.” King and her co-hosts interviewed the likes of former Star Trek actor and Blue Origin NS-18 crew member, William Shatner; former NASA astronaut and the first African American woman to go to space, Dr. Mae C. Jemison; and two of King’s Blue Origin NS-31 crew mates, Nguyễn and Bowe.
Bowe, Nguyễn, King, and the other three crew members of Blue Origin NS-31 sat down with Elle magazine three weeks after Blue Origin announced they would be going to space. This interview marked the first time these six women had met in person. They spoke to Elle about, among other things, how they reacted to being invited by Jeff Bezos to join Sanchez in space; making history—as Blue Origin’s first all-female flight crew, with Nguyễn and Bowe becoming the first Vietnamese woman and first person of Bahamian heritage to travel to space, respectively—and how they prepared for the mission.
Flynn revealed to Elle that her son, who was three years old at the time of this incident, was excited to tell his classmates that his mom was going to space. However, his classmates responded by calling him a liar, and his teachers expressed doubt about his mom’s journey to space. Sanchez interjected to reveal that Flynn had told her that one of her sons’ classmates said, “Moms don’t go to space.”
Flynn, the other five crew members, Blue Origin employees, and many others shared in her son’s excitement, not just about his mom going to space, but about all six women making history together. King revealed to Elle that she was terrified and excited, given her fear of flying. Despite the praise for the mission’s historic significance, the launch also faced criticism.
Critics questioned the necessity of the NS-31 mission, its potential environmental impact, and the vast amounts of money spent to make it happen.
Actress Olivia Munn criticized the mission while co-hosting Today with Jenna and Friends with Jenna Bush Hager on April 3rd, saying, “It’s so much money to go to space, and there’s a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs.” Hager interjected to tell Munn that all six women planned on getting glammed up for the mission. Munn replied, “It’s a bit gluttonous.” She ended her criticism with, “Space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind. What are they gonna do up there that has made it better for us down here?”
Sanchez, in an interview with CBS hours before Blue Origin NS-31 launched, responded to the criticism, saying, “Blue Origin is for the benefit of the Earth. It’s a little misunderstood,” she said of the criticism. King responded to the criticism, saying, “Many people think that if you’re devoting resources to space, you’re taking things away from Earth. It isn’t an either-or. It’s a both, and what happens in space also benefits what is happening here on Earth.”
The Launch
Less than twenty-four hours after sitting down for an interview with CBS, the women were up early and dressed in their blue space suits. Launch day had arrived. The all-female crew of six had anticipated this day and had been training for it the past two days. Guiding the audience watching Blue Origin’s webcast of the launch were the broadcast team of sports journalist Charissa Thompson; space journalist, Kristin Fisher; Blue Origin’s Vice President of InSpace Systems, Ariane Cornell; and Blue Origin employee, Tabitha Lipkin.
The all-female crew of six began their journey to the spacecraft after exiting Blue Origin’s Astronaut Training Center and getting into the two black and silver Rivians waiting to take them to the launch pad. As they made their way down the ‘road to space,’ Blue Origin’s name for the 2-mile road that directly leads to the launchpad, the crew was greeted by friends and family cheering them on, and ringing cowbells. When they reached the circle surrounding the spacecraft, the crew drove to its north end, stepped out of the Rivians, and posed for a team photo with the capsule in the background.
After taking the team photo, the crew got back in the Rivians and drove to the base of the tower, where they got out of the vehicles and into the elevator. From the elevator, they went into the safety shelter, where they prayed and waited to be allowed to make their way to the spacecraft. As they walked towards the spacecraft, they rang a bell one by one, and one by one entered the New Shepard capsule and got into their seats. The six women waited patiently as the Blue Origin command center made sure the spacecraft was functioning properly and went through their launch procedure.
Once the spacecraft was checked for proper functioning and completed its launch procedure, the engine ignited in flames and it lifted off. The capsule separated from the booster once the spacecraft ascended to around 321,000 feet. With the help of three small parachutes and three big parachutes, the capsule and the six women landed safely. From liftoff to touchdown, the entire Blue Origin NS-31 flight lasted exactly ten minutes and twenty-one seconds.
Jeff Bezos opened the door to the capsule. The six women exited the capsule as they had entered it, one by one. Some of the women were emotional, some were happy, and others expressed gratitude for being back on Earth. Gayle King and Katy Perry kissed the ground before they embraced their loved ones to show their appreciation for landing safely back on Earth. Each woman spoke with Thompson about the experience moments after touching down.
After the Launch
The spacecraft’s engines may have flamed out once the booster touched down, but the criticism of the Blue Origin NS-31 mission did not.
A viewer of Blue Origin’s replay of their launch webcast commented under the video, “If staring out a window for 10 minutes makes you an astronaut, then my cat is an astronaut,” using humor to show their displeasure with the broadcast team calling the six women astronauts.
Model Emily Ratajkowski, in a TikTok video, said of the mission, “Saying you care about Mother Earth, and it is about Mother Earth, and you go up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that is single-handedly destroying the planet. Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what? I am disgusted.”
Tech journalist Kara Swisher found the mission offensive, saying on CNN, “What was sort of offensive to me was putting it off like it’s some big feminist thing. It’s just a bunch of wealthy people going up at the behest of one of the world’s richest people.”
Swisher doubled down on her criticism on her podcast, Pivot, calling the flight “a giant publicity stunt for Jeff Bezos.”
Actress Olivia Wilde made her feelings known about the mission, writing on Instagram, “Billion dollars bought some good memes, I guess.” Wilde was replying to a meme tweet that read, “getting off a commercial flight in 2025 #Blue Origin.” Under the text were two photos of Katy Perry from the mission. One of the photos showed Perry lifting a Daisy to the sky after exiting the capsule. The other showed the singer kissing the ground.
Another photo from the mission that became a meme was a picture taken of King after ringing a bell. She had the facial expression of someone rethinking a decision. One meme tweet read, “Me in line to get on a rollercoaster I’ve been saying I wanna ride, but then seeing the big a** drop up close,” using King’s photo for comedic effect. The CBS journalist addressed the moment at the post-launch press conference, saying, “At that moment, I was so afraid. I just wanted to get inside the capsule and sit down.”
The day after returning from space and co-anchoring CBS Mornings, King said, “I would go up again. Not anytime soon, but now that I’ve been through it, I know now that I could do it again.”