Pop star Katy Perry became the biggest name in an all-woman group to safely blast off into space, roaring into the cosmos on one of billionaire Jeff Bezos's rockets.
The Firework and California Gurls singer was lofted more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the Earth's surface in a vessel from Blue Origin, the space company owned by the Amazon founder.
Five other women including Bezos's fiancee Lauren Sanchez also joined the flight, which took off from western Texas shortly early this morning before landing again some 10 minutes later.
Their fully automated craft rose vertically before the crew capsule detached mid-flight, later falling back to the ground, slowed by parachutes and a retro rocket.
Their mission is the first all-woman space crew since Valentina Tereshkova's historic solo flight in 1963.
The company does not publicly communicate the price of trips made possible by its New Shepard rocket.
The all-female crew consists of former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, bio-astronautics scientist Amanda Nguyen, US journalist Gayle King, US singer Katy Perry, community filmmaker Kerianne Flynn and Jeff Bezos' fiance author Lauren Sanchez.
Perry says she was taking part for her daughter Daisy, whom she shares with actor Orlando Bloom, to inspire her to never have limits on her dreams.
She says she is excited to see the inspiration through her eyes and the light in her eyes when she sees that rocket go, and she goes back to school the next day and says-mom went to space.
Perry says in a separate video posted to Instagram that she was shocked to discover during space training that the capsule she will travel in was named the "Tortoise" and decorated with a "feather" design -- the two nicknames her parents have for her.
[Source: RNZ]
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