Baby, you’re a firework! Katy Perry headed for space on Bezos flight

Pop superstar Katy Perry and journalist Lauren Sanchez, who is engaged to marry Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, are set to join an all-female crew on Blue Origin’s next suborbital* spaceflight.

Following the announcement, Newsweek quoted Perry as saying: “If you had told me I’d be part of the first all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child.”

Perry, Ms Sanchez, US media personality Gayle King (better known as Oprah Winfrey’s best friend), research scientist Amanda Nguyen, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe and film producer Kerianne Flynn will make up the crew.

“Lauren (Sanchez) is honoured to lead a team of explorers on a mission that will challenge their perspectives of Earth, empower them to share their own stories, and create lasting impact that will inspire generations to come,” Blue Origin said in a statement.

The announcement comes just days after an Australian physicist* made history as the nation’s first female to travel to space. Media company Chicago Star founder Elaine Chia Hyde was part of a six-person crew aboard Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket on its tenth human flight.

Blue Origin, founded by Bezos, began launching tourists and celebrities to space in 2021 and recently conducted the first orbital test flight of its larger rocket, New Glenn.

To date, the company has flown 52 people to suborbital space across 10 crewed missions.

New Shepard missions launch from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas. Flights typically last just 10 or 11 minutes from lift-off to landing, with passengers experiencing a few minutes of microgravity* as their capsule soars beyond the Kármán line* – the internationally recognised boundary of space, 100km above sea level.

The rocket booster makes an upright vertical landing, while the capsule deploys* parachutes for a gentle touchdown in the Texas desert.

Past high profile passengers aboard New Shepard – named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space – include Star Trek legend William Shatner, as well as Bezos himself, who flew on the first crewed flight.

Ticket prices remain undisclosed, though celebrities are often given complimentary* seats.

Perry’s mission will mark the first all-female spaceflight crew since Valentina Tereshkova’s* historic solo flight in 1963.

Like Elon Musk — the only person wealthier than him — Jeff Bezos has an enduring passion for space.

But while Musk dreams of colonising* Mars, Bezos envisions* moving heavy industry off-planet onto floating space platforms to preserve Earth, “humanity’s blue origin.”

In January, the company successfully launched its giant New Glenn rocket for the first time – a crucial step in its expansion into the lucrative* commercial launch sector.

Blue Origin already holds a NASA contract to build a lunar lander for one of the upcoming Artemis missions, which will return Americans to the moon.

New Glenn will also support the deployment* of Project Kuiper, a satellite internet constellation* designed to rival Musk’s Starlink.

POLL

GLOSSARY

• suborbital: refers to a flight that reaches a very high altitude but does not enter into orbit
• physicist: a scientist who studies matter, motion, and energy
• microgravity: state in which objects appear weightless
• Kármán line: the Kármán line is set at roughly 100km above sea level, separating Earth’s atmosphere from outer space
• deploys: to use something or someone in an effective way
• complimentary: in this context, free, without charge
• Valentina Tereshkova: Soviet cosmonaut who was the first female in space
• colonising: taking control of a place and moving people into it
• envisions: visualises, imagines, pictures
• lucrative: producing a lot of money, profitable
• deployment: organising and sending out people or things to be used for a particular purpose
• constellation: any group or collection of similar things

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QUICK QUIZ

1. How many other women will join Katy Perry’s suborbital spaceflight?
2. Journalist Lauren Sanchez is known for what significant personal relationship?
3. Who is the New Shephard named after and why?
4. What is Elon Musk’s big space dream?
5. Why is Jeff Bezos’ space exploration and travel company called “Blue Origin”?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Space ambition
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk each have their own vision for what they hope to achieve in space. If you had their wealth, and a passion for space, what would your space ambition be? Justify your goal by explaining how it could benefit humans and/or Earth.

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science, HASS, Technologies

2. Extension
If you were chosen for a space mission, would you want your five crewmates to be celebrities, those who have some type of space-related experience or qualification, or a mix of both? Why?

List your ideal five crewmates. (You can give the names of specific individuals or nominate occupations you would like to have on-board.)

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Imaginative dialogue
Imagine you were there during the event being discussed in the article, or for the interview.

Create a conversation between two characters from the article – you may need or want to include yourself as one of the characters. Don’t forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.

Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speaking in the correct places.