On Monday, April 14, the second all-female crew to be blasted off into house within the final 62 years launched and landed safely aboard a rocket operated by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin firm.
Based on NPR, Bezos’ fiancé, Lauren Sánchez, was one of many six ladies who traveled above the environment Monday morning, as have been bioastronautics analysis scientist and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyá» n, movie producer and philanthropist Kerianne Flynn, former NASA rocket scientist and STEM advocate Aisha Bowe (extra on her in a sec), and — get this, y’all — Katy Perry and Gayle King. (Sure, that Katy Perry and Gayle King.)
From NPR:
The star-studded crew flew on Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch automobile, which since 2021 has ferried dozens of scientists, entrepreneurs and celebrities above the Kármán line, the internationally acknowledged boundary of house, about 62 miles above Earth’s floor.
Monday’s mission, NS-31, had garnered appreciable consideration in latest weeks due to its well-known passengers and historic nature.
It was the primary all-female spaceflight since 1963, when Soviet-era cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova — the first lady in house — orbited the Earth throughout an almost three-day solo flight.
Blue Origin’s flight was considerably shorter, lasting 10 minutes and 21 seconds.
It took off from Blue Origin’s Launch Website One in West Texas at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Monday, after weeks of anticipation.
BOSSIP simply wouldn’t be BOSSIP if we didn’t acknowledge how cool it’s to see a few Black ladies launch into house. There’s simply no means many people had “Gayle King, the astronaut” on our 2025 Bingo playing cards. Oprah Winfrey should have been beside herself.
The truth is, in response to Individuals, Oprah was among the many attendees on the launch website in West Texas, exterior El Paso, the place she spoke on the Blue Origin livestream about King and her large, implausible voyage.
“It goes past this second of simply going up in house. I feel this might be an eternal expertise,” Winfrey stated. “Gayle has been there for me for lots of of occasions — I can’t even keep in mind them. However none of us will ever overlook today.”
Upon her return, King kissed the bottom and spoke about her expertise in house.
“It’s oddly quiet once you stand up there,” she stated. “It’s actually quiet and peaceable, and also you look down on the planet and suppose: That’s the place we got here from? To me it’s such a reminder about how we have to do higher, be higher.”
Whereas we’re celebrating wonderful Black ladies doing Black excellence issues, let’s give a particular shout out to Aisha Bowe, who shouldn’t be solely a Black lady who was employed as a rocket scientist by NASA, but in addition the primary individual of Bahamian heritage to journey to house.
Throughout a latest interview with Elle, Bowe stated she seems like she’s been coaching for this second her whole life.
“I wished to go to house, however I didn’t suppose it was potential,” she stated. “I used to be afraid to do it. I used to be afraid to even dream about it. And I began to say to myself, You already know what, Aisha? Why are you afraid of the one factor that you just’ve waited your whole life to do? Simply go do it.”
Based on Model, Bowe graduated from Washtenaw Neighborhood School earlier than incomes her bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in aerospace engineering and house methods engineering on the College of Michigan. She recalled in a latest interview that, in highschool, a steerage counselor advisable that she pursue a profession in cosmetology.
“I point out this not as a result of there’s something mistaken with that discipline,” she stated. “However I wish to make folks conscious that youthful people – particularly kids – will internalize what adults suppose their future appears like.”
So, congrats to King, Bowe, and the remainder of the women who traveled aboard the Blue Origin’s New Shepard. Salute!
