On 13 April 2025, U.S. commercial space company Blue Origin completed a landmark space mission – a crew of six women aboard the New Shepard spacecraft – and returned safely to Earth. A crew of six women travelled into space aboard the New Shepard spacecraft and returned safely to Earth. This was the first all-female manned suborbital flight in the history of global commercial spaceflight and is widely recognised as an important symbol of the convergence of gender diversity and space exploration.
Successful launch and safe return
The mission was launched from the Blue Origin Launch Complex in the Van Horn area of Texas, USA. The New Shepard rocket lifted off at 9.31 a.m. with a crew of six women on board. A few minutes after lift-off, the vehicle broke through the Carmen Line, the internationally recognised boundary in space, and reached approximately 106 kilometres of sub-surface space. It reached a sub-orbital altitude of about 106 kilometres a few minutes after lift-off.
The flight lasted approximately 10 minutes, including several minutes of weightlessness. The crew capsule then landed smoothly in the Texas desert region under multiple sets of parachutes. Upon landing, the ground recovery team was the first to confirm that the crew was in good health and to complete the recovery of the spacecraft.
Blue Origin released an announcement following the completion of the mission stating, ‘This was a safe, successful, and historic flight. We deeply honour the courage, passion, and breakthrough spirit of these six women.’
Six women represent diverse identities
The six members of this historic mission came from diverse backgrounds, including both prominent representatives of the science, technology, education, and aerospace industries, as well as ordinary women who participated in the flight through the commercial space tourism channel. They are:
- Melissa Navarro: an aeronautical engineer who has worked on several NASA research projects;
- Leila Kim: tech entrepreneur, dedicated to women’s tech education;
- Harper Lin: former Air Force pilot currently involved in aviation safety research;
- Cynthia Ortega: STEM education advocate representing female scientific talent in Central and South America;
- Janice Barlow: writer and documentary filmmaker documenting women in science and technology;
- Sofia Tanaka: a lucky passenger selected through Blue Origin’s Public Flight Application.
Together, they are breaking the long-standing image of male-dominated spaceflight and demonstrating the unique value of women in exploring the universe and leading the way in science and technology.
An important step for gender equality in space
Although several female cosmonauts have travelled to space in the past few decades, such as Tereshkova in the Soviet Union and Sally Ride in the United States, women’s participation in overall spaceflight missions remains low. Blue Origin’s all-female flight brings a new paradigm of gender balance to commercial spaceflight and has sparked a new global debate on ‘inclusive space exploration’.
The flight was congratulated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which said it “provides inspiring role models for young women around the world and proves that space is not out of reach.”
Educational institutions and non-profit organisations have also spoken out, saying that the mission is expected to attract more young girls to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) fields, and help future female scientists and engineers grow.
Commercial spaceflight continues to break new ground
The New Shepard spacecraft is a Blue Origin reusable vehicle designed for suborbital space tourism and science experiments, and has been launched dozens of times before. This all-female flight is an important part of its commercial human spaceflight strategy.
Analysts point out that the ‘space business race’ between Blue Origin and SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and other companies is accelerating, which not only promotes the technology iteration of low-cost, reusable spacecraft, but also makes the public, especially people of different genders and backgrounds, getting closer and closer to the ‘into space’ dream. It is also bringing the public, especially people of different genders and backgrounds, closer and closer to the dream of ‘going into space.
It is learnt that Blue Origin will continue to promote the diversified mission layout of ‘New Shepard’, and plans to test-fly a longer orbital flight programme in the second half of 2025.
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