A sassy crew, a billionaire and a celebrity circus in the desert. Space missions don’t get any weirder.
But this is the new world of Blue Origin and its publicity machine.
It brought together six women – all at the top of their game – and dressed them in designer flight suits. One of them, singer Katy Perry, said they “put the ass into astronauts”.
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They launched in a rocket called New Shepard, rising to 65 miles above the Earth, where they unbuckled and floated.
Perry held a daisy – a tribute to her daughter, who’s named after the flower.
And there was wild excitement over the sight of the moon. Did one of them really say it was their goddess?
Meanwhile, back on planet Earth there was a star-studded gathering.
There were a couple of Kardashians. And Oprah Winfrey was there too, covering her eyes, barely able to look.
Then the astronauts were back, released from the capsule by Jeff Bezos, the mega-rich founder of the company and fiance of Lauren Sanchez, another famous name in the crew.
It was all a little surreal, and maybe it will have attracted an audience who wouldn’t normally watch a space launch.
It’s remarkable that this was the first all-female space mission in more than 60 years.
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Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space.
Around 100 have followed her – not least Suni Williams, recently back from her extended nine-month stay on the International Space Station.
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Four minutes of weightlessness as a space tourist doesn’t really compare.
But Perry hopes the mission will encourage more girls and women – not least her daughter – to shoot for the stars.
Perhaps then an all-female crew wouldn’t be so newsworthy.
