Honestly, if you've been scrolling through TikTok or catching snippets of celebrity news lately, you might think Katy Perry just spent the last few years filming another high-budget music video. But the rumors are actually true this time. On April 14, 2025, the woman who once sang about "abduction" and "futuristic lovers" in her hit song E.T. finally stopped pretending. She actually left the planet.
It wasn't a movie set. It wasn't CGI.
Katy Perry did really go to space, or at least to the edge of it, and the internet has been remarkably divided about the whole thing ever since.
The Morning the "Firework" Hit the Sky
The launch took place at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One, tucked away in the dusty desert of Van Horn, Texas. It wasn't a solo trip, though. Perry was part of a historic, all-female crew for the NS-31 mission. If you're keeping track of the billionaire space race, this was Jeff Bezos' company, and the mission was a pretty big deal because it was the first time in over 60 years that a crewed flight didn't include a single man.
The lineup was basically a "who's who" of high-profile women. Joining Katy were:
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- Lauren Sánchez (media personality and Bezos' fiancée)
- Gayle King (the legendary CBS Mornings co-host)
- Aisha Bowe (a former NASA rocket scientist)
- Amanda Nguyen (a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and activist)
- Kerianne Flynn (a filmmaker)
They piled into the New Shepard capsule at about 8:30 a.m. local time. About 10 minutes later, they were back on solid ground.
What Actually Happens During a 10-Minute Space Trip?
You might be wondering: is ten minutes really "going to space"? Well, technically, yeah. The rocket blasted them up past the Kármán line. That’s the internationally recognized boundary of space, sitting about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level.
Once they hit that peak, the rocket booster detached and headed back for its own landing. The capsule, with Katy and the crew inside, spent roughly three to four minutes in total weightlessness.
There's this viral video from inside the cabin that people still won't stop talking about. You see Katy floating upside down, looking totally surreal in her custom blue flight suit. At one point, she’s seen holding a single daisy flower up to the camera. It was a tribute to her daughter, Daisy Dove, whom she shares with Orlando Bloom. It was sweet, sure, but the internet being the internet, the clip quickly turned into a meme. People pointed out how she seemed to be staring into the camera lens more than out the window at the actual universe.
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The Backlash: Why People Weren't Impressed
Despite the "historic" label, the mission took a lot of heat. A lot.
Critics called it a "billionaire's playground" and a "tone-deaf PR stunt." While Katy was busy serenading her crewmates with a few bars of Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World while floating in zero-G, people on social media were fuming about the carbon footprint and the cost.
It didn't help that Katy used part of the flight to promote her Lifetimes Tour. She held up a butterfly-shaped piece of paper with her setlist scribbled on it. For some, it felt less like a scientific milestone and more like the world's most expensive influencer trip.
There's also the "astronaut" debate. Are you an astronaut if you just sit in a fully automated capsule for 11 minutes? Retired aerospace engineers and space purists have been vocal about this. They argue that passengers on these suborbital flights are just that—passengers. They aren't piloting the craft; they're just along for the ride, sort of like a very high-altitude version of Disney's Space Mountain.
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The Long Journey from "E.T." to Reality
The irony isn't lost on anyone that Katy Perry has been obsessed with space for over a decade. Back in 2011, her E.T. music video featured her as an alien drifting through a digital cosmos.
For years, there were also rumors that her ex-husband, Russell Brand, had gifted her a $200,000 ticket on Virgin Galactic for her birthday. That flight never happened for her, but it seems the seed was planted long ago. When the opportunity with Blue Origin came up, she clearly jumped at it.
After landing back in Texas, Katy was seen kissing the ground—literally. She looked visibly moved, telling reporters that the experience was "the highest high" and comparing it to a deep state of meditation. She talked about the "Overview Effect"—that psychological shift astronauts get when they see Earth from above and realize how fragile and borderless it actually is.
Did Katy Perry Really Go to Space? The Final Verdict
If you define "going to space" as crossing the Kármán line and experiencing true weightlessness, then yes, Katy Perry really went to space. She isn't an astronaut in the traditional sense. She didn't go into orbit, and she didn't stay at the International Space Station for months doing experiments on space-grown lettuce. She went up, floated for a bit, saw the thin blue line of the atmosphere, and came right back down in time for lunch.
What You Should Know If You're Following This Story:
- Check the mission name: Search for "Blue Origin NS-31" to see the full, unedited footage of the launch and landing.
- Look at the "Overview Effect": Research this phenomenon to understand why celebrities like Perry and William Shatner often come back from these short trips sounding so emotional.
- Differentiate between Suborbital and Orbital: Understand that what Blue Origin does (suborbital) is very different from what SpaceX does (orbital). One is a quick hop; the other is a sustained stay in space.
Whether you think it was a massive waste of resources or a beautiful moment of female empowerment, one thing is certain: Katy Perry is now one of the few human beings to have actually looked back at Earth from the blackness of the void. Not bad for a girl from Santa Barbara.
To see more about how this trip affected her career, you can look up the "Lifetimes Tour" reviews from 2025, which heavily featured the cosmic imagery she brought back from her 11 minutes of fame in the stars.