ELLE Magazine: Introducing the Stars of Blue Origin’s All-Female Flight

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Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Lauren Sánchez, Gayle King, Katy Perry, and Kerianne Flynn

Blue Origin’s historic all-female space crew, Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, and Kerianne Flynn assembled in person for the very first time for a special ELLE April digital cover. There had been a couple of one-on-one hangouts and video calls ahead of this meeting, but their cover shoot marked their first chance to gather together as a team with the only other women on Earth who could understand how they are feeling.

Blue Origin Flight NS-31, set to take off on April 14, is the first crew made up solely of women since Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo space flight in 1963. It will also be among the most diverse set of women to ever go to space at once. “All of these women are storytellers in their own right,” says Sánchez, who led the organization of the historic mission. “They’re going to go up to space and be able to spread what they felt in different ways.”

The entire trip is only expected to last 11 minutes, and the women will be going up in a rocket that flies itself, allowing each of them to enjoy the flight as passengers. Once they reach space, they’ll be able to float around the rocket, experiencing weightlessness and looking out the windows at the universe and Earth below for about four minutes before coming back down.

“I called Katy,” King says of preparing for the flight. “We had been on the phone for 36 minutes, and I’d asked her 50 million questions, until finally she said, ‘Could I just interrupt for a second? Are you aware that our flight is going to be shorter than this freaking phone call?’”

King and Perry laugh as she tells the story. The CBS Mornings host has been very open about the fear and nervousness she’s grappling with in order to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Perry, on the other hand, is the picture of calm. “I’m going to feel something when they go, ‘10, 9, 8, 7,…’ but until then we’ve got stuff to do. We’ve got business to handle.”

“We have a saying in our house, ‘Life takes off on the other side of fear,’” Sánchez says as she reaches a hand out to King and adds: “Trust me, I’m a little scared too.”

“Wait, you’re the insurance!” Perry exclaims candidly as the group erupts in laughter once again.

“I read a stat that there’s a huge majority of middle school girls who decide not to pursue STEM fields, although they otherwise would have been interested, because they see them as male-dominated fields,” says Bowe, one of the two Black women in the Blue Origin group and a former NASA scientist. “So this representation really matters. It’s people seeing themselves and being able to show up authentically in their careers in the future.”

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ON THEIR INITIAL REACTION TO BEING INVITED TO SPACE

Katy Perry: I was like, What am I going to wear? But seriously, I have wanted to go to space for almost 20 years. I was investigating all of the possible commercial options. Even when Blue Origin was first talking about commercial travel to space, I was like, “Sign me up! I’m first in line.” And then they called me, and I was like, “Really? I get an invite?” And I really felt very sure when they sent me the picture of the space pod, because on the front of the pod is a feather, and that’s my mom’s nickname for me.

Gayle King: I’m probably the only one at the table who wasn’t saying, “Put me in, coach.” I had a lot of trepidation—I still do—but I also know it’s very interesting to be terrified and excited at the same time. I haven’t felt like this since childbirth, really. Because I knew childbirth was going to hurt. But it’s also stepping out of your comfort zone.

Aisha Bowe:  I wanted to go to space, but I didn’t think it was possible. I was afraid to do it. I was afraid to even dream about it. And so when I got the call, I realized that it wasn’t “No” back then—it was “Not right now,” and now is the time.

Amanda Nguyen: It’s a dream come true, and for me it was a dream deferred. I worked at NASA, I studied the stars—astrophysics at Harvard and MIT—but life got in the way. Gender-based violence is a big reason why so many women in STEM don’t continue on with their training, and I was one of those women. After I was sexually assaulted, I traded my telescope to fight for my rights as a sexual assault survivor. I drafted the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, passed it in Congress and at the United Nations. And then, after 10 years, I was like, I want to honor the person that I was before I was hurt.

Kerianne Flynn: I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time. I grew up in a small town in Michigan, and I always looked up at the stars with my grandfather. I can’t wait to touch down on Earth and share what we bring back with the world.

ON MAKING HISTORY

Amanda Nguyen: My parents are boat refugees from Vietnam. We came on boats, and now we’re on spaceships. I’m just so grateful for the opportunity and to do it with such icons.

Gayle King: [Most people at this table are saying], “This has been a dream of mine.” I can honestly say it has never been a dream of mine. But I was having a conversation with Katy, and she said, “Well, maybe you need to get different dreams.” And I just thought, Wow.

Lauren Sánchez: I thought becoming a pilot was a huge dream, and that happened and it was amazing, but I never dreamed of going to space. I didn’t even think it was a possibility. Ever. And now I’m like, Oh my gosh, we’re actually doing it. Jeff [Bezos] was telling Katy and myself: “It’s going to change you more than you know.”

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ON WHOM THEY DEDICATE THEIR SPACE FLIGHT TO

Amanda Nguyen: I’m flying for two people—one of course is my community, as the first Vietnamese woman. The other are survivors of sexual violence. For so many of us, healing is such a difficult path that we don’t know if we’re ever going to make it through. And when I look at that note, I hope that is a healing moment for me. It will be a full circle moment that I can share with other survivors—your dreams still matter; the person you were before you were hurt still matters. And not only do your dreams still matter, they can come true—even flying in space.

Aisha Bowe: I’m dedicating this flight to everybody who was told their dream was too big.

Kerianne Flynn: I’m doing this to leave a legacy for my family. I’m doing it for my son. We are the future of space travel. I want to leave something for my son to be proud of and want to be an inspiration for any future generations.

Katy Perry: I’m flying for my daughter, Daisy, to inspire her to never have limits on her dreams and show her that any type of person can reach their dreams—no matter your background, your ethnicity, your economic situation, or your education level. She’s already such a big dreamer and she’s only four. But also to inspire a whole new generation and make space and science glam.

Lauren Sánchez: For the next generation of explorers. There are going to be children out there who are going to see this incredible group of explorers and go, “I want to do that.”

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ON WHAT THEY’RE TAKING WITH THEM

Aisha Bowe: I have a few things. I’ll be returning the flag from Apollo 12 [the second mission to the moon] to space. Nancy Conrad, who is the wife of Pete Conrad, the third man to walk on the moon, is a mentor and inspiration to me. She said, “Your journey parallels Pete’s in so many ways, and so I want you to carry this flag.” And thanks to the Museum of Flight in Seattle, I actually have the Apollo 12 flag, and that’s going to fly with me.

Gayle King: I’m going to bring pictures, for sure. But then I want to bring something of my grandson’s that means something to him. There’s also music that I want—I don’t even know if we could listen to music, but I like the idea of that.

Lauren Sánchez: Well, Katy can just sing up there.

Kerianne Flynn: You’d be the first [music artist] in space to sing.

Katy Perry: I feel like I should.

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ON RECONCILING MOTHERHOOD WITH SPACE TRAVEL

Kerianne Flynn: When I first was looking into being a civilian going into space and expressed interest and signed up, I told my son about it. He was three years old at the time, and he went back to his preschool and started telling his classmates, “My mom’s going to space. My mom’s going to space.” And he came home just really devastated and upset because all the kids in his class were calling him a liar. And they went to the teacher and said, “Declan said his mom’s going to space. Is his mom going to space?” And the teachers were like, “I don’t think so.” It was a really tough moment. I didn’t go into the classroom or correct anyone, but it just feels like it’s not something that women were known for doing—going to space. Moms don’t do it. And so now I have the opportunity as a female filmmaker to be part of this incredible crew, to actually go to space and bring that experience back.

Lauren Sánchez: Guess what? Moms go to space.

Katy Perry: [My daughter] Daisy wants to go, but she wants the rocket to be pink.

Lauren Sánchez: : I know a guy. I know a guy.

Gayle King: My kids are potty-trained and grown, but their opinion matters to me. So if either one of them had said, “No, I’m worried. I don’t think you should do it,” I wouldn’t be, but they both thought it was very cool. My grandson, who’s three and a half, thinks it’s the coolest thing. He will be there at the launch. He already has a little astronaut uniform.

Katy Perry: Grandmas go to space too!

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ON GETTING GLAMMED UP FOR THEIR FLIGHT

ELLE: This will be the first time anybody went to space with their hair and makeup done.

Katy Perry: Space is going to finally be glam. Let me tell you something. If I could take glam up with me, I would do that. We are going to put the “a**” in astronaut.

Aisha Bowe: I also wanted to test out my hair and make sure that it was okay. So I skydived in Dubai with similar hair to make sure I would be good—took it for a dry run.

Amanda Nguyen: I think it’s so important for people to see us like that. This dichotomy of engineer and scientist, and then beauty and fashion. We contain multitudes. Women are multitudes. I’m going to be wearing lipstick.

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ON HOW THEY’RE PERSONALLY PREPARING FOR THE JOURNEY

Gayle King: I’m starting to meditate. I tried it years ago, but one of these women said, “I have the perfect person for you.” So he’s coming to my house. I have some sessions planned before we go up just to help me with [my anxiety].

Aisha Bowe: I’ve been training for this in some way or another for the last year, but recently I turned up the intensity. I just completed a NASTAR simulation, where I had the opportunity to actually experience what I can expect to encounter on the flight. We’ve got a fighter jet flight booked, and I’m really excited about that.

KF: I’ve done several zero–gravity simulation flights. They carve out a Boeing 747 and fly the plane in a parabolic pattern, so when the plane descends, everyone floats up. That was to get used to the feeling of weightlessness. So I think I’m going to have some fun with that when we’re up.

Gayle King: I feel that too. I like to think that for anybody who can look at me and say, “If she can do that, so can I.” Anybody who knows me is stunned that I’m sitting at the table with this group of people. I’m kind of stunned myself. But I want people to know that you are far more capable of things than you realize. And I am a living example of that. So I’m dedicating this to showing people that number one, it’s okay to have dreams. Dreams do not have deadlines.

Photographer: Celeste Sloman
Stylist: Cristina Ehrlich
Writer: Sylvia Obell
Hair: Andrew Ly for Oribe (Perry), Giselle Modeste (King), Sophie Rose Gutterman for Kérastase (Sánchez) Kelly Zhang (Nguyen) Tai Simon at The Only Agency (Bowe) Christi Cagle for UNITE Hair Care (Flynn)
Makeup: Alexandra French for Armani (Perry), RaeDawn Johnson (King), Laura Mele (Sánchez), Kelly Troung and e.l.f. Cosmetics (Nguyen), Chelsea Smith (Bowe), Kirsten Simitzi (Flynn)

[Photo Credit: Celeste Sloman for ELLE Magazine]

• Aisha Bowe
• Amanda Nguyen
• Gayle King
• Katy Perry
• Kerianne Flynn
• Lauren Sánchez