Dressed not just to shine but to float, pop singer Katy Perry made history on Monday aboard a Blue Origin rocket. For eleven minutes — marked by silence, zero gravity, and a floating tour setlist — Perry was part of the first suborbital spaceflight crewed entirely by women since 1963.

The mission, named NS-31, launched at 8:30 a.m. local time from West Texas. Onboard were Perry; journalist Lauren Sánchez, fiancée of Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos; CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King; activist Amanda Nguyen; aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe; and film producer Kerianne Flynn.

The capsule crossed the Kármán line, located 100 km above sea level — the internationally recognized boundary of space — before returning to Earth under parachutes and retro thrusters.

"Going to space is amazing and I wanted to be a model of courage, merit, and bravery," Perry said after exiting the capsule.

During the flight, Perry sang “What a Wonderful World,” according to Gayle King, while holding a daisy — her daughter’s favorite flower — and showing the camera a list of songs from her upcoming tour, which kicks off later this month in Mexico.

"It’s not about me, it’s not about my songs," Perry said. “The goal of the flight was to give space to the women of the future.”

In a recent interview with Elle magazine, Perry explained she embarked on this journey to inspire her daughter Daisy to "never put limits on her dreams."

This flight marks the first women-only spaceflight since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova orbited Earth solo in 1963. And although space tourism has drawn criticism for being elitist and environmentally taxing, the symbolism of this all-female crew did not go unnoticed.

For Blue Origin, it was the 11th suborbital flight with passengers since launching its space tourism program in 2021. In total, 52 people have flown on board. Among them: Star Trek icon William Shatner and Jeff Bezos himself, who was on the inaugural crewed mission.

But Monday’s flight was more than another tourist ride. It was a statement: the future of space includes women, front and center.

With reporting from AFP.