Blue Origin’s first all-women flight crew is blasting off Monday on a journey 62 miles above Earth’s surface to the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. The NS-31 mission marks the 11th human flight of Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard program.
Blue Origin crew members “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King, pop superstar Katy Perry, journalist and philanthropist Lauren Sánchez, film producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen are suited up and inside the capsule awaiting liftoff. Bowe will be the first Bahamian and Nguyen the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman in space.
They’ll be joining a small group of 52 prior passengers with the New Shepard program who have made the quick trip to space. This is the first all-women crew to lift off in nearly six decades, following Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo spaceflight, Blue Origin said.
“This is such an unlikely place for me to be, so I’ve just in my mind said, ‘OK.’ I feel well prepared for this moment after the training we had…but it still hasn’t eased the fear that I have,” King told “CBS Mornings” featured host Vladimir Duthiers ahead of the rare ride to space.
About Blue Origin’s New Shepard flights
Blue Origin named its New Shepard program after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to fly in space, who piloted Mercury’s Freedom 7 capsule in May 1961 on its launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The program helps bring citizens to space in a reusable suborbital rocket system. Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin, set the stage for future human spaceflights with the program when he lifted off on a capsule, named “First Step,” in 2021 with three crewmates.
“My expectations were high, and they were drastically exceeded. The zero G (gravity) piece may have been one of the biggest surprises because it felt so normal, it felt almost like humans evolved to be in that environment. … It’s a very pleasurable experience,” Bezos told reporters after the successful 2021 spaceflight.
The unpiloted New Shepard capsule has space for six passengers who each have a window seat, looking out of some of the largest windows of any operational spacecraft.
Blue Origin launch timeline
Here’s a rundown of the Blue Origin launch, from preparations to liftoff:
- 8:45 a.m. ET: Blue Origin crew arrives
- 8:55 a.m. ET: Blue Origin crew enters the capsule and members get strapped in
- 9:06 a.m. ET: Hatch closes
- 9:30 a.m. ET: Launch window opens
CBS News New York meteorologist John Elliott said there are “almost perfect conditions” Monday morning in West Texas, where the capsule will launch.
“Winds are calm. Visibility is great,” said Elliott.
How long will Gayle King and the crew be in space?
The journey to space and back, from liftoff to landing, lasts for about 11 minutes. Nearly three minutes into liftoff, the crew capsule separates from the booster and eventually reaches the apogee, or the highest point of the flight. At the apex of the mission, the passengers will be in microgravity, meaning they’ll be able to experience weightlessness, unbuckle and float in the capsule for about 4 minutes, CBS News senior national correspondent Mark Strassman explains. They’ll be floating for about 3 to 4 minutes.
The booster will then return to Earth, landing upright about 2 miles from the launchpad as the capsule continues to come back down to Earth. First, drogue parachutes will deploy then the main parachutes, bringing the history-making crew back down to the ground. They land at less than 15 miles per hour, astronaut Mae Jemison, the first woman of color to travel to space, explained to “CBS Mornings” on Monday.
“New Shepard astronauts ascend toward space at more than three times the speed of sound. They pass the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space 62 miles above Earth, before unbuckling to float weightless and gaze at our planet. The crew returns gently under parachutes, forever changed,” Blue Origin describes on its website.
Blue Origin says the goal of the New Shepard program is also to advance research.
“New Shepard payload flights support a wide range of research, education, and technology development,” the company added.
Nguyen told “CBS Mornings” about her plans to conduct two science experiments during Monday’s spaceflight — one focused on plant pathology in partnership with the Vietnamese National Space Center and the second on women’s health, specifically menstruation.
Who’s in Blue Origin’s first all-women crew?
Crew of Blue Origin’s NS-31 mission, clockwise from left: Lauren Sánchez, Amanda Nguyen, Katy Perry, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe and Kerrianne Flynn. Blue Origin
- Gayle King: “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King, who recently celebrated her 70th birthday, said ahead of the launch that she’s “still processing” and preparing for Monday’s flight. “It’s very hard to quiet my brain,” she joked.
- Katy Perry: Pop superstar Katy Perry said she’s “motivated more than ever to be an example for my daughter that women should take up space.”
- Lauren Sánchez: Lauren Sánchez, who is engaged to Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, helped assemble the all-women crew. She has many titles: Journalist, philanthropist and helicopter pilot, to name a few. “I’m super excited about it. And a little nervous. I’ve wanted to be in the rocket from the jump, so [Bezos] is excited to make this happen with all of these women,” she said in a 2023 Wall Street Journal interview.
- Aisha Bowe: Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist and two-time tech company founder, will make history as the first person of Bahamian heritage to travel to space. “I have been preparing for this moment my entire life,” said Bowe, telling “CBS Mornings” about her journey from community college to NASA.
- Amanda Nguyen: Civil rights activist and astronaut Amanda Nguyen, who drafted the Sexual Assault Survivor Bill of Rights and played a key role in the act’s 2016 passage, is also set to make history as the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman in space. “What a historic crew. Each one of my crewmates represents a community. I’m so proud to be representing mine as the first Vietnamese woman in space,” she told “CBS Mornings” in March.
- Kerianne Flynn: American film producer Kerianne Flynn told Elle she’s “overwhelmed by profound joy and deep gratitude to be a part of this historic journey.”
Unique design of Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft
Blue Origin’s spacecraft carries a crew of six and is fully autonomous, not controlled by a pilot on board.
The crew capsule sits atop a liquid-hydrogen-fueled booster, which launches straight upwards, reaching a velocity of about 2,200 mph and subjecting the passengers to 3G — three times the normal force of gravity — before main engine cutoff, about two-and-a-half minutes into the flight.
At an altitude of about 45 miles, the crew capsule is then released to continue soaring out of the lower atmosphere on its own, while the reusable booster heads back down to Earth to land on a nearby pad.
A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launches from Launch Site One in West Texas on March 31, 2022. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
About three-and-a-half minutes after lifoff, the crew capsule reaches a maximum altitude of just above 62 miles — the Kármán line, which the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, an international body that certifies aerospace records, considers the dividing line between the discernible atmosphere and space.
The crew experiences weightlessness from the moment the capsule separates from the booster until it arcs over the top of the trajectory and begins its descent. Moments after separating from the booster, passengers are able to unstrap and float about the cabin while enjoying spectacular views of Earth.
After a few extraordinary minutes, though, it’s time to strap in for the return home.
“It’s about three minutes before the astronauts will get a warning to get back into their seats. And at that point, they have about 30 seconds. It’s not going to be a rush, it’s going to be very leisurely. All they have to do is be sitting in the seat and then as the G forces come on, our reentry will naturally push them back in the seat, so they have plenty of time to buckle back in,” Gary Lai, a former Blue Origin engineer who helped design the New Shepard, said in an earlier interview with CBS News.
Plunging back into the lower atmosphere, the capsule will rapidly decelerate, briefly subjecting the passengers to more than five times the normal force of gravity, before three large parachutes unfurl to slow the descent to about 16 mph. An instant before touchdown, pressurized nitrogen gas thrusters fire to slow the descent to walking pace.
The New Shepard vehicle has a number of safeguards built in. It is equipped with a “full envelope escape system” that would propel the crew capsule away from a malfunctioning booster at any point from the launch pad on up, using an Aerojet Rocketdyne solid-fuel rocket motor embedded in the capsule.
“It will activate in a fraction of a second, it will light off and propel the capsule away from the booster to safety,” Lai explained. “Once it’s far away, parachutes will deploy and we will execute a normal landing.”
The system is also designed to ensure a survivable landing even if two of the main parachutes fail to open and fully inflate.
Jennifer EarlJennifer Earl is the Vice President of Growth & Engagement at CBS News and Stations. Jennifer has previously written for outlets including The Daily Herald, The Gazette, NBC News, Newsday, Fox News and more.
