The All-Female Space Flight (Suborbital)

Photo credit: Blue Origin

"𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖 𝙒𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙..." 🎵🎶 — Katy Perry singing in a capsule in space!

Another successful launch by Blue Origin — an all-female crew went to space!

In 1959-'60, 13 American women — the Mercury 13 — trained just as hard as the men did to go to space and be part of the missions of the day, but that never happened, because they were women.

Less than two decades later, when a new NASA program encouraged women to apply to become astronauts, a group of six were selected, they did all make it to space!

Sally Ride of "the Six" was the first American woman to fly to space.

The other women that followed were: Judith Resnik, Kathy Sullivan, Anna Fisher, Rhea Seddon, and Shannon Lucid.

"The Mercury 13" and "the Six" were pioneer women in the industry. 

Wally Funk of the Mercury 13 got her chance to go to space in 2021, with Blue Origin, she was 82 years old (the oldest women to have gone to space).

(Photo to the right is me with Wally Funk a few months after her spaceflight.)

Today, (April 14) Blue Origin flew a new set of people into space, and this time, and for the first time ever, six [only]-women.

There was/is a bit of controversy about today's spaceflight and the women chosen, what they wore (and not as individuals, but their spacesuits, different from previous flights), their "glam" photos, etc...

But ultimately, they came back safely to Earth and....

Both Katy Perry and Gayle King kissed the ground (the Earth) just as they stepped down from the capsule; one thanked the Universe, the other, Jesus.

A few were mothers (along their successful careers), said this experience was second best after motherhood.

Lauren Sanchez said how "we're all in this together". On Earth, everyone is apart in terms of distance, opinion, even politics, but from space, you can just see that "we're all in this together".

All were filled with emotions and could just utter the words of how beautiful the experience was.

For Amanda Nguyen, along with a lifetime dream of going to space, this was the final healing of a trauma she survived.

Aisha Bowe, a rocket scientist, now entrepreneur, had her 93-year-old grandfather there on site to watch her dream come alive.

Yes, these women won a certain lottery in life (and no, not from being billionaires) to have been chosen to experience this most unique experience as a human being.

There still have only been less than 800 humans that have gone to space, with suborbital spaceflights (like today's), with orbital spaceflights, and to the Space Station.

It's an incredible and unique gift of an opportunity, one would be crazy to turn it down.

All these women are strong communicators, and they will share this experience through their crafts, channels, writings. 

"What a Wonderful World" is not exactly a reality, but something we should all strive towards, work hard as the ultimate mission of living on Earth and for the future generations to follow.

Through innovation, ingenuity, we need to work in making the planet healthy, clean, sustainable; we need to practice simple things, like empathy and love for one another, towards all animals and ecosystems, we need to make it a priority of making Earth a Wonderful World.

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I, of course, have never experienced space, but I was lucky (and so privileged) to attend and watch in person two separate spaceflights and from two different suborbital space companies: Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic.

(These spaceflights were for Dylan Talor and his crew in 2021, and Alan Stern and his cremates in 2023.)

I can attest being there in person, watching your loved ones or people you know very well be launched into space, is a real interesting, emotional, and fun experience; the camaraderie, the attention to detail by the staff, the unique sight of a spaceflight, the anticipation of the whole experience, ...