The countdown has begun. Blue Origin’s first all-women flight crew is taking pictures for the sky in West Texas on Monday morning in the event that they get the all-clear for his or her uncommon house experience — blasting off on a adventure 62 miles above Earth’s floor to the Kármán line, the the world over known boundary of house.
The gap release window for the NS-31 challenge, which marks the eleventh human flight of Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard program, is scheduled to open at 9:30 a.m. ET.
“I will be able to’t wait to peer what all of the chatter is ready — or how I think or how I will be able to be modified,” King told “CBS Mornings” co-anchors Nate Burleson and Tony Dokoupil. She’ll be becoming a member of pop famous person Katy Perry, journalist and philanthropist Lauren Sánchez, movie manufacturer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen. Bowe would be the first Bahamian and Nguyen the primary Vietnamese and Southeast Asian lady in house.
Learn how to watch Blue Beginning’s all-women spaceflight
- What: Blue Beginning’s first-ever all-women spaceflightCBS Information New York meterologist John Elliott
- Date: Monday, April 14, 2025
- Time: Protection starts at 9 a.m. ET
- Location: Release Website online One in West Texas
- On TV: CBS tv stations
- On-line circulate: Watch CBS News 24/7 within the video participant above, obtain the free CBS News app or circulate on Paramount+
They are becoming a member of a small crew of 52 prior passengers with the New Shepard program who’ve made the short go back and forth to house. That is the primary all-women group to boost off in just about six many years, following Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo spaceflight, Blue Origin said.
About Blue Beginning’s New Shepard flights
Blue Beginning named its New Shepard program after astronaut Alan Shepard, the primary American to fly in house, who piloted Mercury’s Freedom 7 pill in Might 1961 on its release from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
This system is helping deliver voters to house in a reusable suborbital rocket machine. Bezos, the founding father of Blue Beginning, set the level for long run human spaceflights with this system when he lifted off on a pill, named “First Step,” in 2021 with 3 crewmates.
“My expectancies had been top, they usually had been significantly exceeded. The 0 G (gravity) piece will have been one of the crucial largest surprises as it felt so standard, it felt nearly like people advanced to be in that atmosphere. … It is a very fulfilling revel in,” Bezos told reporters after the a hit 2021 spaceflight.
The unpiloted New Shepard pill has house for 6 passengers who every have a window seat, having a look out of one of the vital greatest home windows of any operational spacecraft.
Blue Beginning release timeline
Here is a rundown of the Blue Beginning release, from arrangements to liftoff:
- 8:45 a.m. ET: Blue Beginning group arrives
- 8:55 a.m. ET: Blue Beginning group enters the pill and participants get strapped in
- 9:06 a.m. ET: Hatch closes
- 9:30 a.m. ET: Release window opens
CBS Information New York meteorologist John Elliott stated there are “nearly easiest stipulations” Monday morning in West Texas, the place the pill will release.
“Winds are calm. Visibility is superb,” stated Elliott.
How lengthy will Gayle King and the group be in house?
The adventure to house and again, from liftoff to touchdown, lasts for roughly 11 mins. Just about 3 mins into liftoff, the group pill separates from the booster and sooner or later reaches the apogee, or the best level of the flight. On the apex of the challenge, the passengers might be in microgravity, that means they will be capable to revel in weightlessness, unbuckle and flow within the pill for roughly 4 mins, CBS Information senior nationwide correspondent Mark Strassman explains. They will be floating for roughly 3 to 4 mins.
The booster will then go back to Earth, touchdown upright about 2 miles from the launchpad because the pill continues to return backtrack to Earth. First, drogue parachutes will deploy then the primary parachutes, bringing the history-making group backtrack to the bottom.
“New Shepard astronauts ascend towards house at greater than thrice the velocity of sound. They move the Kármán line, the the world over known boundary of house 62 miles above Earth, sooner than unbuckling to flow weightless and stare upon our planet. The group returns gently below parachutes, eternally modified,” Blue Beginning describes on its website.
Blue Beginning says the objective of the New Shepard program may be to advance analysis.
“New Shepard payload flights strengthen quite a lot of analysis, training, and generation construction,” the corporate added.
Nguyen informed “CBS Mornings” about her plans to behavior two science experiments throughout Monday’s spaceflight — one enthusiastic about plant pathology in partnership with the Vietnamese Nationwide Area Middle and the second one on women folk’s well being, in particular menstruation.
Who is in Blue Beginning’s first all-women group?
Blue Beginning 
- Gayle King: “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King, who not too long ago celebrated her seventieth birthday, stated forward of the release that she’s “nonetheless processing” and getting ready for Monday’s flight. “It is very laborious to quiet my mind,” she joked.
- Katy Perry: Pop famous person Katy Perry stated she’s “motivated greater than ever to be an instance for my daughter that ladies will have to take in house.”
- Lauren Sánchez: Lauren Sánchez, who’s engaged to Amazon and Blue Beginning founder Jeff Bezos, helped bring together the all-women group. She has many titles: Journalist, philanthropist and helicopter pilot, to call a couple of. “I am tremendous fascinated about it. And just a little anxious. I have sought after to be within the rocket from the leap, so [Bezos] is worked up to make this occur with all of those women folk,” she stated in a 2023 Wall Street Journal interview.
- Aisha Bowe: Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist and two-time tech corporate founder, will make historical past as the primary individual of Bahamian heritage to commute to house. “I’ve been getting ready for this second my complete lifestyles,” stated Bowe, telling “CBS Mornings” about her adventure from group school to NASA.
- Amanda Nguyen: Civil rights activist and astronaut Amanda Nguyen, who drafted the Sexual Attack Survivor Invoice of Rights and performed a key position within the act’s 2016 passage, may be set to make historical past as the primary Vietnamese and Southeast Asian lady in house. “What a ancient group. Each and every certainly one of my crewmates represents a group. I am so proud to be representing mine as the primary Vietnamese lady in house,” she told “CBS Mornings” in March.
- Kerianne Flynn: American movie manufacturer Kerianne Flynn informed Elle she’s “beaten by way of profound pleasure and deep gratitude to be part of this ancient adventure.”
Distinctive design of Blue Beginning’s New Shepard spacecraft
Blue Beginning’s spacecraft carries a group of six and is absolutely independent, now not managed by way of a pilot on board.
The group pill sits atop a liquid-hydrogen-fueled booster, which launches instantly upwards, attaining a speed of about 2,200 mph and subjecting the passengers to 3G — thrice the traditional pressure of gravity — sooner than primary engine cutoff, about two-and-a-half mins into the flight.
At an altitude of about 45 miles, the group pill is then launched to proceed hovering out of the decrease surroundings by itself, whilst the reusable booster heads backtrack to Earth to land on a close-by pad.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP by way of Getty Pictures 
About three-and-a-half mins after lifoff, the group pill reaches a most altitude of simply above 62 miles — the Kármán line, which the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, a global frame that certifies aerospace data, considers the dividing line between the discernible surroundings and house.
The group studies weightlessness from the instant the pill separates from the booster till it arcs excessive of the trajectory and starts its descent. Moments after isolating from the booster, passengers are in a position to unstrap and flow in regards to the cabin whilst playing impressive perspectives of Earth.
After a couple of strange mins, despite the fact that, it is time to strap in for the go back house.
“It is about 3 mins sooner than the astronauts gets a caution to get again into their seats. And at that time, they have got about 30 seconds. It isn’t going to be a hurry, it will be very leisurely. All they have got to do is be sitting within the seat after which because the G forces come on, our reentry will naturally push them again within the seat, so they have got numerous time to buckle again in,” Gary Lai, a former Blue Beginning engineer who helped design the New Shepard, stated in an previous interview with CBS Information.
Plunging again into the decrease surroundings, the pill will unexpectedly slow down, in brief subjecting the passengers to greater than 5 occasions the traditional pressure of gravity, sooner than 3 huge parachutes unfurl to sluggish the descent to about 16 mph. An quick sooner than landing, pressurized nitrogen gasoline thrusters hearth to sluggish the descent to strolling tempo.
Mario Tama / Getty Pictures 
The New Shepard car has a lot of safeguards in-built. It’s supplied with a “complete envelope break out machine” that might propel the group pill clear of a malfunctioning booster at any level from the release pad on up, the usage of an Aerojet Rocketdyne solid-fuel rocket motor embedded within the pill.
“It’ll turn on in a fragment of a 2nd, it is going to gentle off and propel the pill clear of the booster to protection,” Lai defined. “As soon as it is a long way away, parachutes will deploy and we can execute an ordinary touchdown.”
The machine may be designed to make sure a survivable touchdown despite the fact that two of the primary parachutes fail to open and entirely inflate.
