AssetID: 54666330
Headline: Katy Perry Goes Extra-Terrestrial With Crewmates On Blue origin Rocket
Caption: Pop star Katy Perry and her crewmates have been preparing to go extra-terrestrial by blasting off into space. The Firework singer joins five other high-profile women on a journey into space aboard Jeff Bezos' spaceflight firm Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. The 40-year-old musician will be accompanied by Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, who helped assemble the crew, CBS broadcaster Gayle King, Amanda Nguyen, a prominent civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and Kerianne Flynn, a film producer. The six have been undergoing two days of training in preparation for the mission, with an emphasis on physical readiness, emergency procedures, safety protocols and operating in zero gravity. After gaining a place on the flight, Perry wrote on Facebook: “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!" She added: “I am honored to be among this diverse group of celestial sisters.” The suborbital flight is scheduled to launch from its West Texas site during a launch window opening at 08:30 local time (14:30 BST). The mission, named NS-31, marks the 11th human flight of the New Shepard programme. The rocket will carry the crew more than 100km (62 miles) above the Earth's surface, crossing the Kármán line, the internationally recognised boundary of space. Passengers will experience a few moments of weightlessness before returning to Earth. The fully autonomous spacecraft requires no pilots, with all flight operations managed by automated systems. After the 11 minute journey into space – the astronauts’ capsule will make a parachute-assisted landing in the desert, with the reusable rocket booster performing a vertical landing near the launch pad. Blue Origin also designates two non-flying support staff as ‘seventh’ crew members - one who provides direct guidance to the astronauts, while the other communicates from the control centre during the flight.
Keywords: blue origin,feature,photo,video,katy perry,jeff bezos,gayle king,lauren sanchez,space,science,rocket,new shepard
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