Katy Perry travels to space and sings 'What a wonderful world'

Katy Perry has outgrown the large stadiums where she usually performs. The singer Firework traveled into space today for a few minutes accompanied by Lauren Sánchez, former journalist and promising tech mogul Jeff Bezos, and four other women, all prominent figures in American society (journalist Gayle King; NASA space scientist Aisha Bowe; bioastronautics scientist Amanda Nguyen). This all-female crew – the first since 1963 – conquered space aboard the New Shepard, one of the rockets from Blue Origin, Bezos' company and competitor of Elon Musk's SpaceX and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

The launch of New Sephard took place at 3:00 PM (Spanish time) from Texas. The rocket, which operates autonomously and without a pilot, accelerated to more than 3,700 km/h and crossed the so-called Kármán line, which officially marks the beginning of outer space. In total, Perry and his companions' trip lasted just over ten minutes: after spending four minutes in weightlessness, the capsule began a controlled descent by parachute. Perry had said he wanted to sing once he reached space, but the broadcast did not capture the moment. However, his companion Gayle King has revealed that the artist had kept his promise and sang a few verses of What a wonderful world. When the singer exited the capsule, she showed off a daisy she had brought on the trip—a reference to her daughter, named Daisy—and bent down to kiss the ground.

The singer explained that she chose the song What a wonderful world because she didn't want that moment to be all about her or her themes. "This experience is about collective energy, and it's all about making space a place for women. And it's also about this wonderful world we see from there and appreciate. This is all for the benefit of Earth," Perry said. The singer said that traveling to space was the second most powerful experience of her time.

The experience was attended by distinguished spectators, such as Kris Jenner and Khloé Kardashian, who minutes before the launch recommended that the amateur astronauts enjoy the moment and put their phones aside once they were in space. Oprah Winfrey also wanted to be present at the launch.

The space tourism mission was broadcast on Blue Origin's social media, which in recent days has already been boiling the pot with videos and photographs of occasional astronauts. In fact, in one of the videos, Katy Perry could be seen explaining that she had felt especially excited during the week prior to takeoff. The singer has a pretty full schedule these days: apart from visiting space, she is immersed in preparing for her tour, which starts in a month.

Space tourism is an activity that very few people can afford. To book a trip with Blue Origin, guests must fill out a form and make a deposit of $150,000. A seat on one of the company's rockets can cost more than a million dollars, but in the case of this mission, the company has not specified the cost. It is also true that some trips are not for sale, but are offered to personalities that the company considers relevant enough to travel to space.

Katy Perry's flight takes place a few weeks after Jesús Calleja became the first Spaniard without astronaut training to travel to space. The presenter also trusted Jeff Bezos' company to fulfill his dream of going to space. Another celebrity who has traveled on a Blue Origin rocket is William Shatner, the popular Captain Kirk of Star TrekAt 90, he became the oldest person to go into outer space.