Six individuals are preparing to blast off into space aboard a Blue Origin rocket on Monday morning, April 14. A 59-foot-high suborbital vehicle named the New Shepard rocket will be taking the crew to the Kármán line, the internationally accepted edge of space.
Who’s on the NS-31 Mission?
The crew members on the NS-31 mission are Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez. As with all other Blue Origin flights, the spacecraft will take off from Launch Site One on Corn Ranch, a private ranch in rural West Texas. It is more than 140 miles east of El Paso.
Who is Kerianne Flynn?
Flynn is an American producer who has gained prominence through her involvement in independent films, and has worked on numerous well-known productions, including The Automatic Hate (2015), This Changes Everything (2018), and Lilly (2024). She has shown interest in space for years and even registered as a passenger on a Virgin Galactic flight into space in 2011. The flight, though, has not yet taken place.
A Decade of Community and Creativity
On its website, Blue Origin states that Flynn “has always been drawn to exploration, adventure, and space, and hopes her Blue Origin space flight will inspire her son, Dex, and the next generation of dreamers to reach for the stars.”
The website says, “After a successful career in fashion and human resources, Kerianne Flynn has spent the last decade channeling her energy into community-building through board service and nonprofit work with The Allen-Stevenson School, The High Line, and Hudson River Park,” adding that she is “passionate about the transformative power of storytelling.”
Blue Origin has already conducted 30 missions, and 10 of them have taken as many as 52 individuals to the boundary of space. The first crewed flight of the spacecraft, NS-16, saw passenger Jeff Bezos in 2021. The flight came after a record 15 test flights, USA Today said.
