And they’re off like a firework.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket took off Monday morning with its star-studded, glammed-up, all-female crew, including singer Katy Perry, Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez, and “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King.
The New Shepard 31 soared through the Texas sky with the three celebrities and crewmates Amanda Nguyen, Aisha Bowe and Kerianne Flynn, who enjoyed just a few minutes in space before returning to Earth as part of a historic 11-minute space tourism flight.
“Oh my goddess!” Perry could be heard yelling when taking a peek at the moon from their sky-high vantage point.
The women flew about 62 miles above the Earth, just above the Karman Line designating outer space — where they caught sight of the void of space, the moon, and the blue planet.
Given the short duration of the flight, the crew only got to experience about four minutes of weightlessness.
After their brief stint in space, the women came back for a soft parachute landing back in the Texas desert, with their thrilled screams heard reverberating through the microphones inside the capsule.
The crowds looking on at the Texas launch site roared with cheers and applause as they welcomed the women back to Earth.
Bezos was the first at the scene to greet his fiancée and the rest of the crew as they exited the capsule.
The women could be heard laughing and cheering as they exited the vehicle, with Sanchez giving Bezos a hug and Perry giving a quick smooch to the Earth below as she’s happy to be back home.
Perry also revealed that she sang Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” during the historic flight rather than one of her own songs to celebrate humanity.
“I think that is not about me. It’s not about singing my songs. It’s about a collective energy in there. It’s about us,” she said.
“It’s about making space for future women and taking up space and belonging. And it’s about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it,” she added. “This is all for the benefit of Earth.”
Perry added that she will be writing a new song based on the once-in-a-lifetime experience.
King also bowed down to kiss the Earth, laughing as she said, “Oh my God, that was amazing.”
“It’s really quiet and peaceful,” she added. “It’s such a reminder about how we need to do better, be better. Do better, be better human beings.”
“I can’t put it into words. We got to see the moon!” Sanchez said. “The Earth looked so quiet … I don’t think you could describe it.”
Nguyen, Flynn and Bowe were all in tears after fulfilling their dreams, with Nguyen revealing that she saw the experience as an opportunity “to heal” from the sexual assault that upended her STEM studies years ago.
“[I’m] so grateful to everyone who made it a reality,” Nguyen said.
“This mum went to space,” Flynn cheered in victory.
Among the big-name attendees at the launch site were Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian, who were there to support the crew.
“We’re here to support our girlfriend and our friends, and I never thought that we’d be talking to you from a space launch for sure,” Jenner said.
Bezos was there in the pre-launch to wish the women luck and give a kiss to Sanchez, telling her the thrilling experience will “change” her forever.
Perry’s daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom, could be seen with her eyes glued to the sky as she watched her mother take off and return to Earth safely.
The voyage marks the first all-female space trip since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova‘s solo flight in 1963.
Although their trip to space was short, the women of NS31 helped carry out various experiments for the universities and science groups that each have partnered up with.
The passengers were also carrying postcards from fans to the final frontier, which will be returned to them once they get back home.
The mission marks the 11th human flight for the Bezos-owned rocket company’s New Shepard program.
All six women pledged to ride into space with full makeup and glam looks. On Sunday, they debuted form-fitting uniforms for the journey.
“Space is going to finally be glam,” Perry previously told Elle. “If I could take glam up with me, I would do that. We are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut.”
Sanchez told the magazine she would glue on her fake lashes to make sure they didn’t fly off during liftoff.
While Blue Origin does not publicly disclose the full price of its spaceflights, a set on their first-ever crewed flight was auctioned off for $28 million.
