Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has sent an all-female crew into space and back, April 14, 2025. For the first time since June 16, 1963, when cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova went into space alone, an all female crew has shot up past the sky, up to the Karman Line, and returned safely to Earth. Let’s face it, SCIFI.radio fans, wouldn’t most of us have given all we own for eleven minutes like that?
This mission, known as NS-31,marked the 31st flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship and the 11th crewed flight. The crew consisted of six women, most celebrities, and a few scientists. It was almost the most racially diverse space crew thus far. With our governmwent afraid of DEI, private enterprise has no such fears and sent up two Black women, one Asian-American woman, and one Hispanic woman.
Astronauts:
- Gayle King, TV host and magazine editor.
- Katy Perry, singer/songwriter
- Aisha Bowe, former NASA rocket scientist, CEO and co-founder of STEMBoard
- Amanda Nguyen, Civil rights activist, 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee
- Lauren Sanchez, journalist, helicopter pilot, philanthropist, Jeff Bezos’ fiancee
- Kerianne Flynn, filmmaker
Watch for Yourself
Warch this bit of history in the making for yourself.
Spacee Tourism is Real. We only achieved powered aerial flight in 1903. The first human being in outer space, Yuri Gagarin, went up in 1961. And now, instead of a space race between major nations, we have space tourism. At the moment, it’s only for the rich and famous, but someday the price might come down to the point where the rest of us could dare to dream of it. In 1783 the Montgolfiere brothers rose above the Earth in a hot air balloon, and now, only two and a half centuries later, we have a space vessel with an all-female crew. Wouldn’t Georges Melies be surprised?
Though billed as the first all-female crew to reach the Kármán line, the internationally recognised boundary of space at an altitude of 62 miles, it technically isn’t. The cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova flew a solo mission to space in 1963.
Watch this 1902 sci-fi movie to see what French director Georges Melies thought would be women’s role in space travel.
As Canasdian journalist Gordon Sinclair pointed out in 1973, “You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon — not
once, but several times — and safely home again.” For a moon trip, we’ll have to wait for NASA and Artemis, but NS-31 is a good start.
We’re going back to space where we belong. Let these two videos remind you of what we used to dare.
Susan Macdonald is the author of the children's book "R is for Renaissance Faire", as well as 26 short stories, mostly fantasy in "Alternative Truths", "Swords and Sorceress #30", Swords &Sorceries Vols. 1, 2, & 5, "Cat Tails" "Under Western Stars", and "Knee-High Drummond and the Durango Kid". Her articles have appeared on SCIFI.radio's web site, in The Inquisitr, and in The Millington Star. She enjoys Renaissance Faires (see book above), science fiction conventions, Highland Games, and Native American pow-wows. Her nonfiction book THEY ENDURED will be published by B Cubed Press in 2025 or 2026.
I admit when I first heard about this I didn’t think about Valentina Tereshkova. So thanks for pointing that out. I’m looking forward to the day when discrimination based on gender, ethnic background, etc., will be something students learn about in history class.
And in the video Kennedy said, “I’m the one who’s doing all the work….” I remember when an American president saying something like that was intended as a joke….