On June 16, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the world's first female astronaut by completing 48 orbits before returning to orbit. Tereshkova's success proved that space is not an exclusive domain for men but also for women. After almost 62 years, last night Blue Origin made history by successfully sending six female astronauts to space.
Through New Shepard Mission NS-31, six astronauts consisting of singer Katy Perry, host Gail King, Kerianne Flynn, Lauren Sanchez Aisha Bowe, and Amanda Nguyen successfully went into space for 11 minutes. This qualified NS-31 to be the first mission with an all-female crew since Valentina Tereshkova's success.
This is Blue Origin's 11th mission to successfully send astronauts to space. Unlike SpaceX, Blue Origin is only able to offer the experience of "traveling" to space for a few minutes before the crew capsule returns to Earth using a parachute. Jezz Bezos himself became the first crew member to be successfully sent into space by Blue Origin in 2021. In the NS-31 mission, his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez was also given the honor of being a crew member.
Blue Origin wants to popularize the experience of space travel with Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic is now facing bankruptcy due to lack of response. Blue Origin has successfully tested the New Glenn rocket that can carry cargo and will be used to launch the Project Kuiper satellite internet system that competes with Starlink.