Tonight, the world will watch on as Katy Perry goes to space.
The E.T. singer is set to join five other high profile women for an 11-minute space flight aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket as the first all-female space flight since cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo mission in 1963.
She will become one of the very few humans who have exited earth’s atmosphere and one of the even fewer celebrities to do so – but not the first.
Before Perry, another widely-loved celebrity went to space and made history when he did.
READ MORE: ‘What are the chances?’ Wild coincidence ahead of Katy’s space trip
William Shatner, known for starring as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, became a real-life space voyager when he boarded Bezos’ Blue Origin back in 2021.
In doing so, the then 90-year-old became the oldest person to fly to space surpassing the record of 82 years old which had been held by Wally Funk.
It’s a record that has since been beaten again by Ed Dwight, but Shatner still remains among the first 600 humans to ever visit space.
The actor boarded the Blue Origin New Shepherd suborbital spacecraft on October 13, 2021. He was joined by three others – Blue Origin Vice President Audrey Powers, PlanetLabs co-founder Chris Boshuizen and tech mogul Glen de Vries.
READ MORE: ‘Love you forever’: John Travolta’s touching tribute to late son
The rocket blasted 100 kilometres above Earth to the Karman line, which is the generally recognised point that separates Earth’s atmosphere from space.
Shatner and his co-passengers experienced about three minutes of weightlessness in space before coming back down to Earth under parachutes.
“That was unlike anything they described,” Shatner could be heard saying on the flight livestream just before landing, per CNN.
The entire flight lasted just 10 minutes from takeoff to landing, but it left Shatner in awe.
READ MORE: All the stars spotted at Coachella 2025
“What you have given me is the most profound experience, I am so filled with emotion, just extraordinary,” Shatner told Bezos immediately after returning to Earth, per CNN.
“I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now.”
In the time following, Shatner has opened up about how the experience affected him and sharpened his awareness of the effects of climate change on our planet.
READ MORE: Harry Potter star may ‘never walk’ again after horror injury
In his book, Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder, Shatner explained a feeling that washed over him as he looked down to Earth from space.
“It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered,” he wrote, per Variety.
“The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness”
He later learned that what he experienced is called the ‘Overview Effect’, which is explained as a phenomenon where astronauts experience a cognitive shift after viewing Earth from space.
“It can change the way we look at the planet but also other things like countries, ethnicities, religions; it can prompt an instant reevaluation of our shared harmony and a shift in focus to all the wonderful things we have in common instead of what makes us different,” Shatner wrote in his book, per Variety.
For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.
Now, it’s time for a new bunch to experience the out-of-this-world experience, and Shatner has some words of wisdom.
Recently, the now-94 year old spoke with Gayle King, who is set to join Perry on the all-female space flight today.
“You’re on an adventure. You’ve got to embrace it,” Shatner told King in an interview on CBS Mornings.
“There are no words in the English language to explain what weightlessness is like. It is the strangest feeling. Nothing is like it.”
King and Perry, along with author Lauren Sanchez, civil rights activist Amanda Nyugen, former rocket scientist Aisha Bowe and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn will take off from Texas when most Aussies are in bed tonight.
Perry is currently in the final stages of preparations for the space voyage and just shared her excitement on Instagram.
“I’ve dreamt of going to space for 15 years and tomorrow that dream becomes a reality,” she wrote ahead of the launch.
READ MORE: The $30 Kmart buy that will change the way you grocery shop
Perry’s dream is finally coming true but that hasn’t been the case for everyone with lofty space dreams.
Over the years, other celebrities have been slated to have their turn in space.
At the height of his fame, NSYNC star Lance Bass was set to fly to space in 2002. He completed four months of cosmonaut training in Russia before joining astronaut training in Houston.
READ MORE: Sophie Delezio marries her childhood sweetheart
His trip was to be funded by Hollywood filmmakers who would make a documentary of his journey. But the funding ended up falling through, and so too did Bass’ dreams of space travel.
In 2021, Ashton Kutcher was set to board a space flight with Richard Branson’s space travel company Virgin Galactic, but later sold his ticket after his wife Mila Kunis convinced him that it wasn’t a “smart family decision”, per CNN.
Child star’s worldly adventures after wild success
Three years ago, Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson was set to fly to space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shephard.
But days before he was set to do so, the space flight’s launch date was pushed back and it was announced he would no longer be joining the crew.
Their space travel plans fell through but as space tourism grows, we could see more wealthy celebrities take their turn leaving Earth.
FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.
