You may have heard that the first all-woman spacecraft crew launched today for a sub-orbital flight, on a Blue Origin New Shepard re-usable rocket. That’s a big deal! Well, I suppose it’s the first all-woman crew if we don’t count Valentina Tereshkova’s 1963 three-day orbital flight on Vostok 6, but even if everyone in that spherical Vostok-3KA capsule was a woman, there was only one, and I think a crew needs to consist of multiple people. So, I think the claims of this being the first all-woman crew are justified.
The flight is making pretty big news because the crew contains some pretty famous people: Katy Perry, likely best known as the voice of Smurfette in the 2011 Smurfs movie and occasional singer; television host Gayle King; movie producer Kerianne Flynn; aerospace engineer and entrepeneur Aisha Bowe; activist Amanda Nguyen; and, perhaps most surprisingly, Lauren Sánchez, author and former news anchor who is engaged to Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos!
What are the odds of that? I wonder if they knew that before the flight?
✨ Weightless and limitless. pic.twitter.com/GQgHd0aw7i
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2025
The flight was a short, roughly 11-minute suborbital one that had an apogee of at least 66 miles, well above the 62-mile Kármán line, the usual altitude used to mark the boundary of space. This means all of the women on the crew are now officially astronauts.
The Blue Origin rocket is re-usable, and lands vertically, much like the SpaceX Falcon series of rockets:
The crewed capsule lands separately, using parachutes and solid rockets to cushion the landing.
Here’s the mission broadcast, if you’re interested:
The Blue Origin flight is definitely a historic one, but what I can’t stop thinking about is how an all-woman crew could have been launched over 40 years ago, and that’s without it being a sort of special stunt, too. I was wondering what the earliest likely time that an all-woman astronaut crew could have just happened, as in a crew selected just because they’re great astronauts, and not because they happen to be women.
I think the era where NASA had a large enough selection of women astronauts on their roster to make this likely would have been in the mid-1980s; I bet an all-woman crew could, hypothetically, have been picked for a shuttle mission sometime around 1985.
Here’s who I would have picked for such a mission, were I in charge of mission assignments at NASA, which I wasn’t. But that won’t stop me. We’ll need seven to fill out a shuttle mission. Here’s my picks:
Sally Ride is an easy pick; she was the first American woman to go to space, on STS-7 in 1983. Ride helped develop the shuttle’s remote manipulator arm (called the Canadarm, for where it was built) and used that arm with exceptional skill, using it on multiple missions to launch satellites and free stuck antennae, among other things.
Shannon Lucid first flew on a 1983 shuttle mission, STS-51-G, and later missions found her on the Soviet, then Russian Mir space station, where she spent 188 days, setting a record at the time for the longest time in space by an American astronaut.
A Canadian astronaut, Bondar was selected as an astronaut in 1983 and flew as a Payload Specialist on the first International Microgravity Laboratory Mission (IML-1), which used the Spacelab module and provided important research for future space stations.
Mary Cleave flew in space on two shuttle missions, STS-61-B in 1985, and then on STS-30, where she assisted the crew of the Atlantis in launching the Magellan probe that was sent to Venus.
Kathryn Sullivan flew three shuttle missions, including becoming the first American woman to perform a spacewalk/extra-vehicular activity (EVA) in 1984, and in 1990 was on the mission that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. 
Judith Resnik was an engineer with a a degree and a PhD in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Maryland, and worked for RCA and Xerox before becoming an astronaut. She was on the crew of the maiden flight of the shuttle Discovery in 1984, and died tragically in the Challenger disaster in 1986. She was also the first Jewish woman in space.
I know I said this mission would be one without any sort of “stunt” crew placements, but if I was at NASA and realized that we were about to launch the first all-woman-crewed mission, I might be tempted to reach out to the USSR and see, in the interests of cooperation and the unifying power of science, if perhaps they’d be willing to let Svetlana Savitskaya, the second woman in space and the first woman to perform a spacewalk, come along on the mission.
[Ed Note: I’m choosing Kathryn Thornton, my former aerospace engineering professor at UVA. It was awesome being taught about lift and drag and all that by a badass former-astronaut. -DT].
Savitskaya flew on two missions to the Salyut 7 space station, via Soyuz capsules. In total, she spent almost 20 days in space.
Of course, an all-female mission didn’t happen in 1985, nor any time after that, at least not via NASA. I’m quite sure that a mission could have happened and been a success, and it’s telling that it would even be weird or notable, considering how many missions have been all-male, without comment. But that’s how the world is, I suppose. Or, more hopefully, maybe was.
Congratulations to Blue Origin and all five new astronauts on their mission; I’m hopeful similar ones will become common enough to not even be news, at least not for the composition of the crew, and just for the amazing things they achieve out there in the void.
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That rocket is great. My inner 10-year-old always giggles when I see its phallic shape.
This whole thing was such a farce. This amounts to a millionaire’s version of an amusement park ride. It does nothing for advancing women.
Exactly. The real headline if they were being honest would be “billionaire gets tired of being nagged by his girlfriend and shoots her into space.” Who gives a shit.
I think the recent claim is all female passengers not crew. They accomplished nothing. But I guess Katy Perry sang.
Watch nerd crossover:
I was supper pissed reading that Omega gave Moon edition Speedmasters to the first Origin crew. I mean, I’m not a fan now as they are owned by Swatch, but the story of how Omega was chosen by NASA is interesting. However these watches were gifted. I think after doing the calculation, Jeff Bezos made the money to purchase all the Omegas in the time it would take him to put on one of the watches.
However, all the criticism of the “crew” aside, remember that Musk hasn’t had the balls to ride in one of his own rockets, meanwhile Bezos has, as well as his girlfriend.
I mean, it’s something.
Finally, someone came out of the woodwork!
“However, all the criticism of the “crew” aside, remember that Musk hasn’t had the balls to ride in one of his own rockets,..”
Dude, some of the things are not like the other. Get a grip, lol.
OK, Svetlana Savitskaya was a certified badass:
Without the knowledge of her parents, Savitskaya began parachuting at the age of 16. Her father realized her secret extracurricular activity upon the discovery of a parachute knife in his daughter’s school bag. After his discovery, he further promoted this tendency.
That’s awesome parenting right there.
It’s sad that group was the first. My only hope is they will call those blue origin “missions” upper atmosphere. So there will be a real first. Especially the coverage of it and the audio of them in “space” I’ve been told by multiple women the audio was like drunk girls in the bathroom taking mirror selfies. My only conclusion from that whole thing was bezos offered his lady friend or whatever she is to go up and she wanted it to be a record first so they assembled that group.
As a woman with a STEM career, the coverage of this made me cringe. A bunch of rich ladies – oh sorry, I mean crew members – went on a rocket trip (in fashionable jumpsuits, of course!), came back to produce some disappointingly vapid quotes for the press, and suddenly they’re pioneering astronauts. >.< Anyway, thanks to Torch for using this occasion to point out a big opportunity missed by NASA, and to highlight some real astronauts (and, technically, a cosmonaut).
Blue Origin self identifies as a space tourism company, ipso-facto anyone going for a ride is a tourist. They should at least land somewhere else, maybe yet another use for St. Peters, and the pope could explain what it all means.
I saw this movie back in the 70s. I think it was called “Bimbos in Space”.
Funny enough, I’m pretty sure that’s streaming on Amazon Prime.
You need Eileen Collins, because somebody has to fly the thing. Add Pamela Melroy or Susan Still as pilot so Collins can be the commander.
Your initial group is a whole lot of payload specialists.
Does not look super female that thing, does it?
ya, rocket looks like a big phallus.
It’s not a phallus! It is a “personal massager.”
These people aren’t highly trained “crew” members like Buzz Aldrin, they’re just rich people who paid for a seat.
Came here to say the same. The people who pay to fly in this craft are no more crew than we are when we fly in a passenger plane.
Now, if I had the money I would absolutely do it, but I’d be a passenger as well.
As Iggy Pop would say,
They are passengers,
and they ride, and they ride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fWw7FE9tTo
Colour me unimpressed. Who cares if the people in a space crew are men, women, or non-binary? I for one don’t.
Women who have been historically shut out of spaces (lol) like this care. Men who care about creating equal opportunities care.
Plus, if no one actually cared who was got a chance at getting on a space crew, we’d statistically would have had an all women crew by now. We’ve had 398 manned launches to space. Statistically speaking that it took this long to get a 100% women one, is crazy.
That being said, these women were nothing more than passengers on an amusement park ride. Still cool, but let’s not hold them in the same place we put the likes of Sally Ride.
Yeah I actually agree that it was silly to call this group a “crew” and act like they did something other than pay money.
I really think we need to get past this we-choose-people-by-gender thing, instead of celebrating something as insignificant as this.
Given who was on the “crew”, it does not look as if they were selected for qualification at all, meaning this is probably even more sexist than the ignoring of capable people because they had the wrong gender of the past was.
If you celebrate that an all-woman “crew” (really more grown-up kids on an amusement ride, as Doughnaut pointed out) that was selected purely for celebrity value, and think of it as “equal opportunities”, that that’s sad, IMHO.
Buddy, we ARE choosing people by gender. Unless you think men occupy the overwhelming majority of positions of power because they are inherently better than women, you KNOW that we choose people by gender.
Well yes, we still are, in some areas, and it needs to stop. One good place to stop would be these silly “oh, we picked an all-women ‘crew’ to get on a giant roller coaster ride” photo-op things. What chances would a more qualified man would have had to be on that crew? Yup. None. Because it was purely selected by gender and celebrity value (and maybe whom they are fucking) and not by qualification.
You gave yourself away with the “maybe who they are fucking” comment, Martin. Have a nice day.
Have you actually read the article? “… and, perhaps most surprisingly, Lauren Sánchez, […] who is engaged to Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos!”
I mean one of them is engaged to the owner of the company so its at least a semi valid point at minimum
Can you think of any other reason for Lauren Sanchez to be there? Martin just said it in a more blunt way than perhaps you or I would have.
Why would it need to stop?
Opportunities for what exactly? To be cargo? Lab rats? Projectiles? Ballast?
I’m all for it, but I believe creating equal opportunities is now against the law.
Somebody has been sleeping on the couch lately.
The Void?
JT, no disrespect for your take obviously, but…for real?
Ol’ Katy spent the whole time looking into the webcam, promoting something. Oprah’s friend hung out with Bezos’s “Dutch Bridge Destroyer”, and they tossed in a few other Baskin-Robbins for good measure.
Their whole time in actual zero gravity was under 5 minutes, and when they landed (which granted, was pretty cool in itself), two of them kissed the ground, like they defeated Zuul.
Kissed the ground… as if they all haven’t spent thousands of hours on G6s flying all over the globe, and never seen the moon before. lol
Props to Bezos for getting some PR, but a hot-air balloon ride in Pennsylvania is more dangerous.
These ladies just had the day free to cash in some AmEx Black points, and looked very pretty in the process. Which is fine!
I’m far from an “Eat the rich” dude, but this whole event deserved as much attention as a LIV 3-day golf outing, which…ain’t a lot. lol.
Let’s not pretend it was anything more. 🙂
p.s. I’m surprised the whole anti-Elon crew is silent on this one. We shall see tomorrow if the pudding is any more than 2 proof. 😉
Agree.
…was anyone else weirded out by the fact that the all-women crew had form-fitting jumpsuits while the previous ones have all looked more like baggier racing suit-style coveralls? I guess it wouldn’t be weird if they were like, we want less frumpy suits (understandable!), but if that call was made by Blue Origin bEcAuSe WoMeN, it kinda puts a weird damper on the whole achievements-and-progress vibe, y’know?
Regardless, let me poop in space. At least they’re finally over the Kármán Line with these flights, but I want to be up there long enough to enjoy the view and drop a deuce. Let me (specifically me) poop in space.
I personally thought it was all pretty sexy, which was the point of spending all that money for a cuck moment.
It was all just so weird, and not in a great way.
Poop away, you wacky Austin lass! That’s what I say.
As long as there’s a proper space-loo. Jason can personally tell you about how unpleasant the Apollo system was.
You only get poop points if you flush it outside for it re-enter on its own, creating a beautiful fire in the sky for all to enjoy as it’s incinerated.
Possibly, but I don’t want my number two to add to the ever-growing field of space debris. It’d depend on whether the toilet is designed as a pack-in-pack-out situation or if they jettison that (actual) crap.
Which is why you only get points by making sure it defenders the atmosphere and burns up.
Fair! It’d be a true first: first time I’d lit my turd on fire.
ETA: Ah, it was Sánchez’s call https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/katy-perry-all-female-blue-origin-rocket-launch-get-monse-designer-flight-suits
So, that’s a little less weird, at least. (Admittedly, I FULLY logged off from news all weekend and it was great, and yesterday was catch-up-on-work time.)
As if the USA in 1985 would allow a soviet anywhere near a space shuttle. Would have been cool, but super unlikely. Otherwise, a fantastic list. Why does NASA not have the balls (pun intended) to let it happen then or now?
Apollo-Soyuz was only ten years before, and the Shuttle/Mir flights were ten years later, so a bit of glasnost feels appropriate for this alternate history.
Yeah, but the 1980’s were the height of Soviet paranoia about the west. They were building Burin as a counter to the perceived “shuttle gap” and would of course be salivating over the chance to inspect it up close in personal. Highly doubt the DoD would sign off on that.
Why not? What would the Soviets do, sabotage? NASA bureaucrats were perfectly capable of sabotaging the shuttle by themselves as they proved just a year later.
I remember seeing The Right Stuff as a kid as part of some weird seeming indoctrination my family seemed to push to get me interested in space. I don’t know if it was excitement of the then new space shuttle or what the deal was, but if it didn’t have a prop and .50 machine guns to shoot Nazis with, I had no interest. The Right Stuff only made it seem like pointless torture and a ton of risk so that people could get weather predictions with accuracy slightly higher than tasseography and not have to use paper maps. As I’ve gotten older, I find it even more off putting with the massive pollution and resource squandering going to what is largely checkmark-tourist vanity trips for obscenely rich, half-plastic parasites who are bored with their terrestrial consumption, megayacht orgies, and youth-retaining child blood bathing rituals so they can look through a thick window smaller than my TV on which I could see the same thing and say, “Wow, would you look at that! It really is round!”
This is not a comment on the it being all women (which is cool, regardless of who the women are!) but rather wondering what the difference between “crew” and “passengers” is when it comes to Blue Origin flights. A crewmember on a plane or a boat is someone who is has a job on the vehicle, a passenger is someone paying for a ride. Of all the people that Blue Origin has sent to space, how many are crew and how many are passengers?
The New Shepard is fully autonomous—there are no pilots.
https://www.blueorigin.com/new-shepard
Oh no, they’re all highly trained, educated on all the systems, and have been through rigorous physical testing.
I believe they are considered payload, with the emphasis on “pay.”
Only one engineer in the bunch. They didn’t even have to press a button. They are not “crew,” they are passengers. When I fly on a plane, I do not become a member of the flight crew.
Not that it’s relevant to being an actual astronaut, but before she became Jeff Bezos’ pneumatic accessory, Lauren Sanchez was a helicopter pilot.
Vocabulary.com defines an astronaut as “someone who travels in space.” So, I guess we live in a world where Katy Perry is an astronaut. There are other definitions that could be debated, I guess, but why bother.
If I had spent my life studying and training to be an astronaut, I think I might find this definition rather insulting.
While I do enjoy these short visits perhaps the next flight could last a little longer.
It’s about the journey, not the destination.
I know all these “missions” (expensive amusement part rides) are pointless, but three annoying women with outsized egos flying through the air in a giant phallic symbol…
Had it crashed, it would have been terrible, awful, tragic and hilarious all at the same time.
I’d argue pointless is a bit harsh. All new technology starts with a high price tag, which funds development and efficiency, economies of scale, and eventually (hopefully) a move towards mainstream and significantly lower price points. I remember seeing the first 90 or 100 inch flat screens having six digit price tags.
Going to space requires lots and lots of fuel. Since this rocket does not reach orbit it requires a little less but an orbital rocket is about 90% fuel by weight sitting on the launch pad and there’s no way around that. This is also why this entire flight, start to finish, is under 15 minutes. The only reason to take this ride – and all occupants are payload and have the same responsibilities as a sack of potatoes – is to take an expensive amusement park ride. Nothing is accomplished, they did it for clicks.
Not much different than going to see the Titanic in a homemade submarine except that guy was poorly funded and suffered from extreme narcissism and hubris and thought safety was an impediment to progress. But at least he shared the fate of his victims. These ladies would never take that sort of risk.
Do you have any idea how much electricity it takes to produce the amount of liquid oxygen for one of these flights? The electric bill would financially ruin you.
Fucking legend,
Robertas Bondars.
Canada’s first female astronauts.
She is an absolute badass.
As is Jenni Gibbons.
Wait a minute; Bondar’s name isn’t Bender, it’s Bondar!
No Molly Cobb, Tracy Stevens or Ellen Waverly? This will not stand.
I just started a re-watch. Those first two seasons are just awesome.
The first time I watched the first season I had a few problems with it (that’s not how that works, those DSKYs are too advanced). Then I got out of my own way and re-watched it and paid attention properly (tech was advancing faster and things were going wrong because they were taking more risks to keep up) and realised despite similarities it wasn’t ‘our’ NASA, I fucking loved it.
The second season was some of the best TV I’ve ever seen, in particular the last few episodes. I don’t think seasons three and four have quite hit the same highs, but it’s still brilliant.
Sally Ride is probably the inspiration for Waverly so that sort of counts. I’m guessing there are similar connections behind other characters, but I’m too lazy to find out.
I’ll never forget Tracey Stevens flushing that toilet. I chuckle every time I think of it. Such a small moment, but the best one of season one for me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerrie_Cobb
Thank You! I’m not too lazy to read and read about Jerrie I shall. 🙂
Chauvinism is so stupid.
So I had to google those characters to find out what you’re talking about and got all excited to see “For All Mankind” and then saw that it’s only available on Apple TV+. Then I checked again and saw that it’s on Prime. So there’s my emotional roller coaster for the day, thankyouverymuch.
That went over my head, too. Thank you for spelling it out for us.
Do keep up at the back.
Unfortunately, I have one more downward slope for your roller coaster. It’s only on Prime if you get the AppleTV add-on subscription.
Dammit. I hate this ride. Lost my hat on that last dip.