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On April 14, 2025, pop star Katy Perry, along with a high-profile all-female crew, made headlines for their suborbital flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. The mission, dubbed NS-31, was celebrated as a historic moment—the first all-female spaceflight since Valentina Tereshkova’s solo mission in 1963. However, a closer look at the flight’s details reveals that Perry and her crew didn’t truly venture into outer space, and the polished video clips surrounding the event have raised questions about their authenticity.

The Blue Origin New Shepard NS-31 mission lifted off at 9:30 a.m. ET (8:30 a.m. CDT) on April 14, 2025, from Launch Site One in West Texas. The crew capsule landed at approximately 9:40 a.m. ET (8:40 a.m. CDT), with the total mission lasting about 10 minutes.

Who Was Part of the Crew?

The NS-31 mission featured six women from diverse backgrounds:

• Katy Perry: The Grammy-nominated singer, known for hits like “Firework” and “E.T.,” brought star power to the mission.
• Lauren Sánchez: A journalist, helicopter pilot, and fiancée of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, Sánchez helped design the crew’s flight suits.
• Gayle King: Co-anchor of CBS Mornings, King added media prominence and spoke openly about her fear of flying.
• Aisha Bowe: A former NASA rocket scientist and CEO of STEMBoard, Bowe represented expertise in aerospace engineering.
• Amanda Nguyen: A bioastronautics researcher and civil rights activist, Nguyen became the first Vietnamese woman to fly on such a mission.
• Kerianne Flynn: A filmmaker with experience in documentaries, Flynn contributed a creative perspective.

This eclectic group was framed as a symbol of gender diversity in space exploration, blending celebrity, science, and advocacy.

The New Shepard rocket launched from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas, about 120 miles southeast of El Paso. The flight lasted approximately 10 minutes and 21 seconds, reaching a maximum altitude of 106 kilometers (66 miles) above ground level, or 107 kilometers (67 miles) above mean sea level. This altitude is just above the Kármán line, an internationally recognized boundary at 100 kilometers (62 miles) that’s often considered the edge of outer space.

However, calling this “outer space” is contentious. The Kármán line is a somewhat arbitrary marker where the atmosphere becomes too thin for conventional aircraft to generate lift, but it’s still within Earth’s upper atmosphere. For context, the International Space Station orbits at about 400 kilometers (250 miles), where the atmosphere is negligible, and true orbital spaceflight occurs. The NS-31 crew experienced a few minutes of weightlessness and saw the curvature of Earth against a dark sky, but they didn’t leave the atmosphere in a meaningful way. Their suborbital trajectory meant they went straight up and came right back down, never achieving orbit.

Did They Actually Reach Outer Space?

Technically, yes, the crew crossed the Kármán line, qualifying them as astronauts by some definitions, including those used by Blue Origin and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. However, NASA, the U.S. military, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have stricter criteria for astronaut status, often requiring contributions to the mission or crossing a 50-mile (80-kilometer) threshold with specific duties. Since the New Shepard is fully autonomous and the crew’s role was largely passive—described as “experiencing weightlessness and looking out the windows”—they wouldn’t qualify as astronauts under these standards.

Critics argue that labeling this as an outer space journey is misleading. The flight was more akin to a high-altitude thrill ride, staying within the thermosphere, a layer still influenced by Earth’s gravity and atmospheric particles. As heliophysicist Doug Rowland noted in a NASA explainer, the atmosphere doesn’t truly end until about 400 miles up, far beyond New Shepard’s reach.

Why Did the Video Clips Look Overproduced?

The video footage and photos from the NS-31 mission, shared widely by Blue Origin and media outlets, struck many as overly polished. Several factors contribute to this perception:

• Pre-Flight Glamour: The crew emphasized aesthetics, with Perry telling Ella Magazine, “Space is going to finally be glam. We are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut.” Sánchez added, “We’re going to have lash extensions flying in the capsule!” This focus on makeup, custom Monse-designed flight suits, and curated appearances gave the mission a staged, red-carpet vibe.
• Professional Production: Blue Origin’s livestream and post-flight montages featured cinematic angles, dramatic music, and carefully edited shots of the crew cheering or gazing at Earth. The capsule’s interior cameras were positioned for optimal framing, as a 2021 Good Morning America interview with Blue Origin’s Sarah Knights revealed: “They’re going to know exactly where each of the cameras is inside of the vehicle, so they can plan out any photos.”
• Celebrity Narrative: The presence of Perry, King, and Sánchez, alongside high-profile spectators like Oprah Winfrey and Khloé Kardashian, amplified the event’s Hollywood feel. Clips of Perry holding a daisy (a nod to her daughter) or singing Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” during weightlessness felt scripted to evoke emotion, not raw experience.
• Controlled Environment: Unlike orbital missions, where astronauts deal with unpredictable challenges, the suborbital flight was brief and choreographed. The crew underwent zero-gravity training and capsule familiarization, ensuring they knew what to expect, which reduced genuine spontaneity in the footage.

Skeptics on platforms like X have called the videos “photoshopped” or “fake,” though there’s no evidence of fabrication. Instead, the hyper-produced quality likely stems from Blue Origin’s marketing strategy to sell space tourism as glamorous and accessible, not gritty or scientific.

The New Shepard rocket, named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space, was designed and built by Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000. The reusable rocket-capsule system is engineered for suborbital tourism, carrying passengers above the Kármán line for brief periods of weightlessness. Blue Origin claims the rocket’s propulsion system produces only water vapor as a byproduct, though atmospheric scientists note that water vapor in the upper atmosphere can still act as a greenhouse gas.

The capsule, where the crew sat, features large windows for viewing Earth and is equipped with automated systems, requiring no pilot input. This automation underscores why the crew’s role was passive, further fueling debates about whether they were astronauts or high-paying passengers.

The crew’s reflections provide insight into their experience, though they also highlight the mission’s symbolic rather than scientific nature:

• Katy Perry: “I feel super connected to love,” she said after landing, holding a daisy she brought for her daughter. She also told Elle pre-flight, “Even when Blue Origin was first talking about commercial travel to space, I was like, ‘Sign me up! I’m first in line.’”
• Gayle King: “It’s oddly quiet when you get up there. It’s really quiet and peaceful, and you look down on the planet and think: That’s where we came from?” she said post-flight. She also admitted, “I stepped out of my comfort zone in a way that I never thought was possible for me.”
• 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,” she told Elle, defending the crew’s glamorous approach.
• Kerianne Flynn: “I went to space!” she shouted after exiting the capsule, pointing at the sky, capturing the thrill of the moment.

The NS-31 mission wasn’t without criticism. Some, like planetary scientist Tanya Harrison, called it a “marketing stunt,” arguing that it prioritized tourism over science. Posts on X echoed this, with users dismissing the flight as a “high-flying plane” ride rather than true space travel. The environmental impact of rocket launches also drew scrutiny, though Blue Origin emphasizes its low-carbon footprint compared to traditional rockets.

Financially, the mission’s cost remains opaque. Blue Origin hasn’t disclosed ticket prices for NS-31, but past flights required deposits of $150,000, with one seat auctioned for $28 million in 2021. It’s unclear whether Perry or others paid or were “honored guests,” as celebrities like William Shatner have been.

The mission’s legacy lies in its symbolism. While not a scientific endeavor, it showcased women from varied fields, potentially inspiring younger generations. Perry herself framed it as a lesson for her daughter, Daisy, saying she wanted to show that “any type of person can reach their dreams.”

Katy Perry and her NS-31 crew didn’t venture into outer space in the way orbital astronauts do. Their brief suborbital hop above the Kármán line, while technically qualifying as space by some definitions, kept them firmly within Earth’s upper atmosphere.

The glossy, overproduced video clips reflect Blue Origin’s aim to market space tourism as a glamorous experience, but they sacrifice authenticity for spectacle. Built by Blue Origin, the New Shepard delivered a safe, thrilling ride, but its passengers were just that—passengers, not explorers. Still, the mission’s cultural impact, as voiced by the crew’s heartfelt quotes, suggests it may resonate beyond its 10-minute flight time.