First all-woman crew in 60 years heads into space

Blue Origin successfully completed its 11th human spaceflight and the 31st flight for the New Shepard programme on Monday afternoon.

The first all-woman crew to head into space since Valentina Tereshkova‘s historic solo flight in 1963 blasted off at 2.30pm.

The crew of 6 included pop star Katy Perry, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, CBS journalist Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and Emmy Award-winning journalist Lauren Sánchez.

Launched from Texas, USA, the New Shepard astronauts ascended toward space at more than three times the speed of sound at 2.30 pm Irish time.

They passed the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space 100 km)above Earth, before unbuckling to float weightless and gaze at our planet.

The crew returned gently under parachutes after their 11-minute mission.

Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos and led by CEO Bob Smith, Blue Origin is an American privately funded aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington.