It’s been more than 60 years since a woman travelled into space without a man. And now six of them have blasted off from Earth.
Popstar Katy Perry, author Lauren Sanchez, journalist and TV presenter Gayle King, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, former rocket scientist Aisha Bowe and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn successfully took off in Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin rocket this afternoon (UK time).
It was the latest flight of the New Shepard programme, named NS-31, and was aimed at creating a “lasting impact that will inspire generations”, with the women forming the first all-female crew since Russian engineer Valentina Tereshkova’s solo flight to space in 1963.
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All-female crew is launched into space
Image: The capsule landing with a thud. Pic: Blue Origin
Among the celebrities gathered to watch the historic launch were Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian, and Oprah Winfrey, a long-time friend of Gayle King.
She told Blue Origin host Charissa Thompson that she had “never been more proud” of her friend.
“I think life is about continuing to grow into the best of yourself, and I think this is one of the fullest expressions of yourself that you can have,” she added.
Image: The flight path of the New Shepard rocket. Pic: Blue Origin
The trip only lasted around 11 minutes, with the reusable self-driving rocket taking off from Launch Site One in West Texas, at 8.30am local time (2.30pm BST).
It reached a maximum height of 107km (62 miles) above Earth, with the women technically entering space as the capsule crosses the Karman line, which is internationally recognised as the boundary of space.
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Kardashians share support for all-female crew
They will not, however, be classed as astronauts by the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA or US military, which all have different eligibility requirements for people to become commercial astronauts.
While in space, the crew had about four minutes of weightlessness to float around and take in the views of Earth from the capsule’s large windows.
The crew capsule then descended back to Earth using three parachutes.
Image: (L-R) William Shatner and Jeff Bezos before their respective New Shepard flights. Pic: Reuters/AP
Star Trek actor William Shatner became the oldest person in spacewhen he joined the mission at the age of 90.
Image: Sanchez hugging Bezos after going up into space. Pic: Blue Origin
How the crew was picked
Mr Bezos’ fiancee led the mission. Sanchez told Elle magazine she chose her fellow crew members because each had “proven their ability to inspire others”.
She said all the women will be able to spread the word on what they felt like during the trip, and also expand on ideas of what the next generation of space explorers will look like.
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Katy Perry gears up for spaceflight
Perry, who is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, told Elle that she had been wanting to go to space for almost 20 years, so it was a no-brainer when she got the call.
She said: “Even when Blue Origin was first talking about commercial travel to space, I was like, ‘Sign me up! I’m first in line’. And then they called me, and I was like, ‘Really? I get an invite?’.”
Image: Journalist and broadcaster Gayle King. Pic: Reuters
For King, who is best known as the co-host of US breakfast show CBS Mornings, the decision wasn’t quite so easy.
“When I got the call from Lauren and Jeff, my first reaction was a no,” she said, adding that she still had “a lot of trepidation” ahead of the trip.
Image: Former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe. Pic: AP
Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist and chief executive of technology company STEMBoard, said she feels like she has been “training for and waiting for this moment [her] entire life”, while civil rights activist Nguyen and film producer Flynn both said the opportunity was a dream come true.
“It was the most incredible experience of my life to be up there and see such vast darkness in space and look down on our planet,” Flynn said.
Image: Civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen. Pic: Reuters
As well as making history by being the first all-female crew in space, the women were also thought to be the first group of astronauts to have their hair and makeup done for a mission.
“Who would not get glam before the flight,” Sanchez said, before joking that fake eyelashes would be “flying round the capsule”.
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Highlights from William Shatner’s Blue Origin flight in 2021
Bowe said she had already tested out the hairstyle she planned to have on launch day – by skydiving in Dubai.
“I think it’s so important for people to see us like that,” Nguyen said. “This dichotomy of engineer and scientist, and then beauty and fashion. We contain multitudes. Women are multitudes. I’m going to be wearing lipstick.”
Perry put it another way: “We are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut.”
Image: The all-female crew of NS-31, the space programme owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos
The women also shared details of what they planned to take to space, including the original flag from Apollo 12 – the second mission to the moon – a stuffed animal, shells from Malaysia, and conch chowder, the national dish of The Bahamas, which Bowe grew up eating.
Before the flight, Perry said she felt like she should perform while floating above the Earth, which would make her the first artist to sing in space.
There was speculation that she might sing one of her own songs, but later revealed she actually chose Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World.
Image: Perry kissing the ground after going to space. Pic: Blue Origin
She said: “I think that it’s not about me or about me singing my songs, it was about a collective energy in there. It’s about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it.”
She added that she would “for sure” write a song about her experience in space, which she said was “10/10”.
Image: Pic: Blue Origin
Perry said she was taking part in the mission for her daughter Daisy Dove Bloom, who she shares with British actor Orlando Bloom, to teach her that “any type of person can reach their dreams”.
Exiting the capsule after landing, the Firework singer held up a real daisy flower in the air, before kissing the ground.
A bystander hailed a hero after he tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen in the Bondi Beach shooting is a shop owner.
The man, named by a relative as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, was seen in a video running up to the attacker from behind and then grabbing the shotgun from his hands before pointing the weapon back at him.
The footage then showed the terrorist heading towards a bridge where another gunman was located, while the bystander placed the gun beside a tree.
Image: Ahmed al Ahmed (in a white T-shirt) is seen in a video running up to a gunman from behind
Mr Ahmed, who was wearing a white T-shirt, was shot twice in the incident and was due to have surgery, his cousin, Mustafa, has revealed.
In a video on 7News, Mr Ahmed appeared to have a bloodied arm and hand, and was helped by other people near the scene in the Australian city.
At least 11 people were killed and 29 others injured in the attack when two gunmen opened fire from a bridge on crowds at a Jewish event around 6pm local time on Sunday evening.
More than 1,000 people had been at the gathering which was celebrating the festival of Hanukkah.
Image: Mr Ahmed manages to get the gun off the terrorist
Image: The bystander then points the weapon at the attacker who moves away towards a bridge
A gunman was killed and another was in a critical condition following the shooting.
One of the suspects was 24-year-old Naveed Akram.
His driver’s licence says he lives in Bonnyrigg, a suburb of Sydney. The identity of the other suspected attacker is not known.
Image: Naveed Akram, 24, was one of the suspects
Mustafa said father-of-two Mr Ahmed, who owns a fruit shop in the Sydney suburb of Sutherland, did not have any experience with guns but was just walking past when he decided to step in.
He told 7News: “He’s in hospital and we don’t know exactly what’s going on inside.
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One of the suspected gunmen has been named as 24-year-old Naveed Akram.
The footage of the bystander’s actions spread quickly on social media as people praised the man for his bravery, saying his actions had potentially saved many lives.
“Australian hero (random civilian) wrestles gun off attacker and disarms him. Some people are brave and then some people are… whatever this is,” one person said on X, sharing the video.
“This Australian man saved countless lives by stripping the gun off one of the terrorists at Bondi beach. HERO,” another said.
Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales state, where Sydney is located, said it was the “most unbelievable scene I’ve ever seen”.
“A man walking up to a gunman who had fired on the community and single-handedly disarming him, putting his own life at risk to save the lives of countless other people.”
“That man is a genuine hero, and I’ve got no doubt that there are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery,” he added.
The country’s prime minister Anthony Albanese praised the actions of Australians who had “run towards danger in order to help others”.
“These Australians are heroes and their bravery has saved lives,” he told a news conference.
Messages were sweeping across Sydney within minutes of the attack at Bondi Beach.
Parents messaged their children and teenagers, who had been enjoying a late afternoon swim at Bondi.
Witnesses said police were on the scene quickly, and the streets of Sydney’s eastern suburbs were full of police cars and ambulances on their way to Bondi.
When we arrived, there were still dozens of people processing what had happened, and everywhere – shock.
Witnesses told us that when the gunfire started some people took cover in the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club. Once the threat was over, lifeguards helped the injured and used surfboards to carry them out.
Image: Witnesses tell Sky’s Nicole Johnston of Bondi ‘warzone’
Some people were clearly traumatised and provided graphic detail of witnessing the shooting and seeing people killed in front of them.
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A photographer, Danny, was covering the Jewish holiday event.
He said he “locked eyes” with one of the gunmen, who then fired towards him. Danny said he was grazed by a bullet. He kept filming during the shooting, while taking cover.
Sam, from France, was working at Bondi. He went to the scene of the attack and saw almost a dozen people lying on the ground covered in blood. Sam described it as like a “war zone”.
Rabbi Lei Wolff, from Central Synagogue in Sydney, went to Bondi as soon as he heard about the mass shooting. A dear friend of his, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was killed in the attack.
Rabbi Wolff has called on people around the world to stand with Australia’s Jewish community against terrorism.
A senior Hamas commander who was one of the architects of the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel has been killed in a strike on Gaza City, according to the country’s military.
Raed Saad was targeted in response to an attack by Hamas in which an explosive device injured two soldiers on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement.
It is the highest-profile killing of a senior Hamas figure since the Gaza ceasefire came into effect in October.
Gaza health authorities said the attack on a car in Gaza City killed five people and wounded at least 25 others, but there has been no confirmation from Hamas or medics that Saed was among the dead.
Image: Raed Saed
Hamas condemned the attack in a statement as a violation of the ceasefire agreement but stopped short of threatening retaliation.
An Israeli military official described Saed as a high-ranked Hamas member who helped establish and advance the group’s weapons production network.
“In recent months, he operated to re-establish Hamas’ capabilities and weapons manufacturing, a blatant violation of the ceasefire,” the official said.
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The 10 October ceasefire has enabled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to Gaza City’s ruins after a war that began after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seized 251 hostages in an attack on southern Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 70,700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health officials in Gaza.
Israel has pulled troops back from city positions, and aid flows have increased, but violence has not completely stopped.
Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed at least 386 people in strikes in Gaza since the truce, while Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed.