With the declared intention to ‘put the ass into astronaut’ – whatever that means – and complete with well-glued fake lashes, a cargo of teddy bears and postcards, bespoke blue flightsuits and, yes, nappies for everyone, a six-strong all female ‘crew’ will, briefly, go up into space this Monday on Jeff Bezos’ rocket.

History will be made on his Blue Origin company craft New Shepard as this will be the first all-woman space flight since Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo trip in 1963.

Lauren Sanchez – helicopter pilot, journalist, philanthropist, children’s author and fiancee of billionaire Amazon tycoon Bezos – will be on board for the 11-minute ride, along with five hand-picked female flying companions, who are all getting a freebie as her ‘guests’. 

Normally a seat is said to cost between $200,000 and $300,000 although they’ve been known to sell at auction for millions. 

Among those strapping in for lift-off is pop singer Katy Perry and US news anchor Gayle King.

Debate is already raging over whether the event is a landmark moment for feminism or simply a bad taste PR stunt for Bezos, with an unfortunately shaped rocket.

But what actually happens in the flight? And why is the rocket shaped like that?

Lauren Sanchez – helicopter pilot, journalist, philanthropist, children’s author and fiancee of billionaire Amazon tycoon Bezos – will be on board for the 11-minute ride

Among those strapping in for lift-off is pop singer Katy Perry, pictured

WHO’S WHO IN THE CREW

The oldest member is CBS presenter Gayle King, 70. 

She initially turned down the approach from Bezos and Sanchez, whom she has known socially for years; she’s joined them on their yacht in Italy among other places.

She said: ‘When I got the call from Lauren and Jeff, my first reaction was a ‘No’.

‘I’ve since talked to so many people who’ve been up. So I had a lot of trepidation – I still do – but I also know it’s very interesting to be terrified and excited at the same time. I haven’t felt like this since childbirth. 

‘At the beginning of the year I said: ‘I’m open to new adventures.’ I’m here and I am really, really excited to go.’

King, a friend of Oprah Winfrey and Meghan Sussex, admits she has taken up meditation to calm her ’12 out of ten’ nerves in the run-up to the countdown.

There is some backlash over a journalist taking the freebie from Bezos, who recently and controversially imposed his own views on The Washington Post, which he’s owned since 2013, announcing that its opinion section will now focus on supporting ‘personal liberties and free markets’, marking a major shift from the section’s previous broad approach.

One disgruntled Post staffer said it was ‘kind of gross’ for King to be endorsing Bezos.

CBS presenter Gayle King, 70, initially turned down the approach from Bezos and Sanchez, whom she has known socially for years; she’s joined them on their yacht in Italy among other places

Sanchez, 55, has been engaged to Bezos for more than two years and their affair ended both their previous marriages

Sanchez, 55, has been engaged to Bezos for more than two years and their affair ended both their previous marriages.

They live together in mansions dotted across the US and are set to marry in June in Venice. She was a local news anchor and TV presenter before setting up a helicopter company offering services to the film industry.

Since getting together with the tycoon she has become vice-chair of the Bezos Earth Fund and also published a book, The Fly Who Flew To Space – to which Bezos gave a five-star review on Amazon. She will be taking a plush toy based on the fly character with her on Monday’s space flight.

Also joining them is Katy Perry, 40, the pop singer who was briefly married to Russell Brand and now lives with actor Orlando Bloom and their four-year-old daughter, Daisy, in Los Angeles. She has put together a playlist which is roughly three times longer than the flight, declaring: ‘Space is going to finally be glam.’

She and Bloom have long been part of the Bezos social circle and Perry says she has wanted to go into space for two decades. She adds that Daisy would also love to go in the rocket – as long as it can be painted pink.

They will be joined by former rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, 38, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, 33, and film producer Kerianne Flynn, 57.

THIS SEASON’S ASTRO-FASHION

Perry said her first question after being asked to join the flight was: ‘What am I going to wear?’ And the answer is: nappies and a blue flightsuit.

There was some first-hand advice from actor William Shatner, who went up on a previous New Shepard flight, who recalled: ‘Between the time you leave your bed and get to the ship and deal with the Press and go up in the air and come back down and deal with the Press, it’s a long time, and there are no bathroom facilities. So they give you diapers.’

In an interview with Elle magazine, the six women spoke about getting dolled up for the occasion

In an interview with Elle magazine, the six women spoke about getting dolled up for the occasion. 

Perry said: ‘Let me tell you something. If I could take glam (make- up) up with me, I would do that.’

Sanchez exclaimed: ‘We’re going to have lash extensions flying in the capsule,’ adding: ‘Mine are glued on. They’re good.’

Nguyen said: ‘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. Women are multitudes. I’m going to be wearing lipstick.’

GETTING READY FOR LIFT-OFF

Nasa astronauts undergo years of training but the six ‘crew’ who are in the pod of the New Shepard will not operate the rocket in any way – it is fully computer-controlled – so no technical training is needed.

But there are two days of mandatory training in order to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations before blast-off from Launch Site One, a spaceport in the West Texas town of Van Horn, near the Mexican border.

Principally, the crew have to practise how they strap themselves back into their reclining chairs after experiencing weightlessness. This is one of the biggest risks.

Nasa astronauts undergo years of training but the six ‘crew’ who are in the pod of the New Shepard will not operate the rocket in any way. Picture; Stock image

Shatner explained: ‘If you aren’t strapped in correctly, there’s a danger you will break your back. You have to strap in in a specific order: left shoulder, right shoulder, waist, crotch, and by the time you get to the last few straps, you’re lying down and can’t really see where the straps are supposed to go.’

He also said that before the flight he was shown a cement-walled chamber with oxygen tanks inside which is designed as a safe room for passengers to use in the event that the rocket explodes. He didn’t find that particularly reassuring.

EXTRAORDINARY 11-MINUTE TRIP

After lift-off, the rocket reaches 2,233mph and the crew will experience 3G – three times the normal gravitational force. They will feel flattened or pushed back in their seats and possibly unable to raise their arms.

Studies have found pilots tend to experience G-Force-induced unconsciousness at around 5.4G, so this is well below that.

The rocket will go to the Karman line, named after the Hungarian physicist Theodore van Karman. At 62 miles up, this is the point that is generally accepted as where the Earth’s atmosphere separates from outer space.

At that point the crew will be allowed to unstrap themselves and enjoy around four minutes of weightlessness in their pod, before strapping themselves back into their seats and waiting for around three minutes as the capsule falls back down to Earth.

The whole flight is over in between ten and 11 minutes. Previous crews have been filmed and can be seen in YouTube videos whooping, somersaulting and taking selfies during the weightless period. Not Shatner, however.

Although famous for playing the most well-known space traveller (albeit fictional) of all time – Captain James T Kirk in the TV series Star Trek (Bezos is a fan) – Shatner recalled looking out into the black void of space and experiencing overwhelming existential dread. ‘I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis, that connection I had been looking for between all living things. That being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe.

After lift-off, the rocket reaches 2,233mph and the crew will experience 3G – three times the normal gravitational force

‘I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us.’

Called the Overview Effect, it’s said to have been felt by a number of astronauts including Russian Yuri Gagarin.

King has different expectations: ‘I’m looking forward to weightlessness, what that feels like. Then I’m looking forward to just seeing what space looks like. So, number one, I plan to open my eyes.’

Sanchez seems to think the experience will inspire a generation. ‘I have no idea what it’s going to be like. The fact that we’re going to be able to come back and inspire people and bring people together excites me the most.

‘Little girls and boys are going to be more curious about space and what else is out there because we’re bringing attention to it. It will be great to inspire a new generation.’

WILL THEY REALLY BE WEIGHTLESS?

While the crew will experience ‘weightlessness’ this is down to the trajectory of the capsule hurtling back to Earth and not because they are temporarily unaffected by Earth’s gravity.

During the ‘weightlessness’ period, they are in freefall along with the craft, in a way which is identical to a sharp drop in an elevator or on a rollercoaster. Scientists explain that if you are falling at the same rate as everything around you, with no air resistance, it feels as if you are flying.

While the crew will experience ‘weightlessness’ this is down to the trajectory of the capsule hurtling back to Earth and not because they are temporarily unaffected by Earth’s gravity. Picture: Stock

If you wanted to reach a point where Earth’s gravity no longer has a hold on you, you’d have to fly out about 13 million miles, which is 87 times further away than the moon.

Even the International Space Station (ISS) – which is 248 miles above the Earth – is impacted by Earth’s gravity and atmosphere. The capsule will arrive back on Earth with a parachute-assisted landing in the West Texas desert.

IS IT REALLY A SPACE FLIGHT?

Sort of…although the Karman line is the most widely accepted definition of the ‘edge of space’ and is used by the commercial space flight industry as its marker, it is by no means deep space.

It’s certainly not where the Earth’s atmosphere ends. That comprises five layers –troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere – that extend roughly 497 miles above the planet. Orbit can be achieved 99 miles above Earth, where friction with the atmosphere is low enough.

WHY IS THE ROCKET ‘THAT’ shape?

With its slender, elongated booster and a more bulbous crew capsule on top, the New Shepard has been compared to Dr Evil’s rocket from the hit comedy film Austin Powers. Others have commented that it resembles something else altogether.

With its slender, elongated booster and a more bulbous crew capsule on top, the New Shepard has been compared to Dr Evil’s rocket from the hit comedy film Austin Powers

Daniel Ramspacher, a propulsion engineer at Goddard Space Center, explains that the rocket’s unusual shape is because the capsule that sits on top of the tube will fit perfectly on Bezos’ next rocket, the New Glenn (named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth) – the successor to the New Shepard.

Rampsacher, not speaking on behalf of his employer, said: ‘The New Glenn is their next launch vehicle, which is much larger and is designed specifically for the capsule that sits on top of the New Shepard. The reason why it’s a little bit larger is because the launch vehicle, the rocket, the next version is wider. This is probably the most phallic-looking spacecraft you’re going to see.’

NOT THE FIRST

So far 52 people have been on 31 flights on the New Shepard since its first human mission in 2021. They include billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, who was later killed on the OceanGate submersible during a trip to see the wreck of the Titanic.

Female aviation pioneer Wally Funk went up at the age of 82. Investor Evan Dick, of Dick Holdings, has gone up twice.

Business professor Jim Kitchen, who has been to all 193 United Nations recognised countries on Earth, went up in 2022.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR JEFF?

Aside from giving Lauren a pre-wedding treat which makes any hen weekend look like small fry, the publicity around the flight will be important to Bezos, currently engaged in a battle with Elon Musk for Nasa dollars.

Since 2021, Nasa has offered to pay hundreds of millions to private companies to develop commercial space stations that could succeed the ISS.

So far, it has handed $400million to companies including Bezos’s Blue Origin, which has announced plans to build a space station called Orbital Reef by 2027. Bezos believes that before long ‘millions’ will live on space stations.

Before that, however, he’ll be wishing his fiancee and her pals make it safely back to Earth.