Blue Origin introduced the six-person crew for its upcoming NS-31 mission final week, marking the eleventh crewed flight of the New Shepard program.
The mission will function an all-female crew that features among the largest names influencing mainstream popular culture so far, together with former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics analysis scientist Amanda Nguyen, CBS journalist Gayle King, pop recording artist Katy Perry, former style and human sources skilled Kerianne Flynn, and Emmy Award-winning journalist, bestselling writer Lauren Sánchez, who performed a pivotal function in assembling the group.
Following the announcement final week, Sánchez expressed her pleasure about main a bunch of explorers on a mission that may present a transformative perspective of Earth, empower them to share their tales, and encourage future generations.
“This mission would be the eleventh human flight for the New Shepard program and the thirty first in its historical past,” Blue Origin mentioned in an announcement. “So far, this system has flown 52 individuals above the Kármán line, the internationally acknowledged boundary of area.”
Meet the Newest Blue Origin Crew
Aisha Bowe
Aisha Bowe is a former NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur, and world STEM advocate. Because the CEO of STEMBoard, an engineering agency featured twice on the Inc. 5000 listing, and founding father of LINGO, an edtech firm, she has been a driving drive in equipping college students with vital tech expertise. Of Bahamian heritage, Bowe goals to encourage younger individuals worldwide together with her journey from neighborhood school to area.
Amanda Nguyen
Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics analysis scientist and Harvard graduate, has performed analysis at NASA, MIT, and the Worldwide Institute for Astronautical Sciences. She has contributed to the NASA shuttle mission STS-135 and the Kepler exoplanet undertaking. A Nobel Peace Prize nominee and TIME’s Girl of the 12 months for her advocacy for sexual violence survivors, Nguyen’s journey represents a historic milestone as the primary Vietnamese and Southeast Asian lady astronaut.
Gayle King
An award-winning journalist, co-host of CBS Mornings, and editor-at-large of Oprah Day by day, Gayle King is thought for her insightful storytelling. Because the host of Gayle King within the Home on SiriusXM, she has constructed a profession on fostering significant conversations. Embracing the journey of area journey, King is raring to push previous her consolation zone as a part of Blue Origin’s historic all-female flight.
Katy Perry
International pop icon Katy Perry, the best-selling feminine artist in Capitol Information’ historical past, brings her ardour for advocacy to the mission. As a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and founding father of the Firework Basis, Perry has devoted herself to empowering underserved kids by means of the humanities. She hopes her spaceflight expertise will encourage her daughter and others to dream past earthly boundaries.
Kerianne Flynn
Kerianne Flynn, a former style and human sources skilled, has spent the previous decade championing community-building initiatives. She has highlighted vital social points as a producer of thought-provoking movies like This Modifications Every part (2018) and LILLY (2024). Flynn sees spaceflight as the last word journey and hopes to encourage future generations, together with her son, to pursue their goals.
Lauren Sánchez
An Emmy Award-winning journalist, bestselling writer, and aviation skilled, Lauren Sánchez is Vice Chair of the Bezos Earth Fund. Founding father of Black Ops Aviation, the primary female-led aerial manufacturing firm, Sánchez has additionally penned the kids’s ebook The Fly Who Flew to House (2024). Her contributions to aviation earned her a spot within the Elling Halvorson Vertical Flight Corridor of Fame. Sánchez goals to encourage younger explorers by means of her journey past Earth.
This mission marks the primary all-female crewed spaceflight since Valentina Tereshkova’s solo mission in 1963. New Shepard’s NS-31 would be the thirty first flight in this system’s historical past and its eleventh carrying people.
Gender in area
As of 2023, ladies represent roughly 11 p.c of the world’s astronauts, 6.6 p.c of spacewalkers, and 20 p.c of the area workforce. New analysis factors to feminine astronauts could exhibit higher resilience to the physiological stresses of spaceflight in comparison with their male counterparts. A examine analyzing immune system responses discovered that male astronauts skilled extra important disruptions in gene exercise throughout and after area missions, with restoration taking longer than in females.
“Males look like extra affected by spaceflight for nearly all cell varieties and metrics,” scientists write in a Nature Communications examine. Lead by Christopher Mason, a professor of physiology at Weill Cornell Medication in New York, says that being pregnant could have one thing to do with it.
“Having the ability to tolerate massive modifications in physiology and fluid dynamics could also be nice for with the ability to handle being pregnant but in addition handle the stress of spaceflight at a physiological degree,” he mentioned.
An extra part to gender dynamics in area includes feelings and the way people specific what they see and expertise after visiting area. This will basically change how they view themselves, others round them, and the world.
Iya Whiteley, Ph.D., an area and aviation psychologist who has labored with a number of area companies and astronauts by means of their psychological well being after they visited area, says that astronauts typically discover that they lack the correct phrases to explain their experiences after they have returned from area. The Debrief reached out to Whiteley to ask her views on whether or not gender performs a job in how area vacationers course of their expertise of trying again at Earth.
“Astronauts, no matter gender, endure a profound shift in perspective when viewing Earth from area,” Whiteley mentioned in an e-mail. “Maybe it’s much less about gender and extra in regards to the particular person’s distinctive tapestry of earlier experiences that result in the area flight. Every individual brings a novel lens, coloured by their private historical past, coaching, and cultural background.”
“The power to articulate this expertise typically depends upon particular person openness and accessible language relatively than gender itself,” Whiteley added. “Girls could also be extra elegant in expressing their experiences and emotions. Particularly on this all-female crew, we’ve got skilled communicators. Communication in regards to the remodeling expertise would contact individuals who haven’t had this expertise.”
Deep feelings from area
No matter gender, civilian astronauts typically share their profound experiences in area extra overtly than skilled astronauts, who could filter their accounts resulting from skilled constraints and public expectations. Whereas each teams are pushed by exploration, Whiteley says skilled astronauts are likely to prioritize mission targets and scientific objectives.
“In my expertise as a psychologist and Aviation and House Psychologist, these deeply affected by a profound expertise typically share it in intimate settings. Civilian astronauts may specific their experiences extra overtly, with out the filters that skilled astronauts typically make use of resulting from their coaching or skilled constraints and the stigma related to how skilled crew ought to conduct themselves in public engagements. Skilled astronauts, whereas additionally pushed by exploration, are mission-focused and should prioritize scientific targets.”
“What I really like about this all-female crew is we’ve got an expressive artist on board,” Whiteley mentioned. “Katy Perry and her artistic work encourage tens of millions. I look ahead to seeing what this expertise conjures up [her] to create.”
The crew’s launch follows within the footsteps of Canadian actor and Star Trek icon William Shatner, who became the oldest person to take off on a Blue Origin rocket into area in October 2021.
In his ebook Boldly Go: Reflections on a Lifetime of Awe and Marvel, Shatner wrote about his expertise in area and the way stunning it was to see the vastness: “There was no thriller, no majestic awe to behold . . . All I noticed was loss of life.” He anticipated to be amazed and thrilled by the view from the Blue Origin pod, however that appears to not have been the case.
“I noticed a chilly, darkish, black vacancy,” he continued. “It was not like any blackness you may see or really feel on Earth.”
As Shatner’s expertise helps convey, area journey can profoundly impression vacationers, particularly first-timers, resulting in transformative shifts in perspective, which embody what is known as the Overview Effect. This expertise might be tough to articulate, even for expert communicators, as language struggles to seize the depth of the expertise of seeing Earth from area.
The emotional depth ranges from awe to worry, altering self-awareness and difficult perception methods. The closest terrestrial comparability is visiting an rising economic system, the place publicity to stark inequalities can initially be jarring however in the end broadens one’s world perspective on happiness and hardship.
In his ebook, Shatner wrote that whereas the attract of area stays, the expertise revealed to him “that the sweetness isn’t on the market, it’s down right here, with all of us.”
“Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet much more profound,” Shatner wrote.
“It was among the many strongest emotions of grief I’ve ever encountered.”
Chrissy Newton is a PR skilled and founding father of VOCAB Communications. She at the moment seems on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which might be discovered on The Debrief’s YouTube Channel on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Observe her on X: @ChrissyNewton and at chrissynewton.com.
