Katy Perry's 10-Minute Spaceflight: How Much Does A Short Space Trip Cost?

Pop star Katy Perry, with five other women, completed a brief foray into space on Monday, reaching the edge of the cosmos aboard one of billionaire Jeff Bezos's rockets. Bezos's fiancee Lauren Sanchez, as well as CBS host Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, scientist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn, were also part of the first all-female spaceflight in more than 60 years.

The "Roar' singer and her crew were lofted more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the Earth's surface in a vessel from Blue Origin, the space company owned by the Amazon founder. The flight brought the passengers beyond the Karman line -- the internationally recognized boundary of space.

The vessel lifted off from West Texas at 9:31 am ET and traveled to the edge of space, where the passengers experienced a brief period of weightlessness before returning to Earth in a flight lasting around 11 minutes, according to a live broadcast by Blue Origin.

The women went to space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft, which can carry up to six passengers on a short journey beyond the Earth's atmosphere. Including Perry and her crew, as many as 58 people have travelled to space aboard Blue Origin's spacecraft since it began the civilian programme in 2021.

Who Can Book A Blue Origin Flight?

Anyone can book a trip to space on a Blue Origin flight, albeit they have deep pockets. The company's website has a reservation page where potential passengers can fill out a form listing basic information like their name, address, and birth year. It also contains a section where the company asks passengers to describe themselves in 500 words or fewer.

The only requirement for filling the form is that the applicant must be 18 years old or older.

How Much Does Space Travel Cost

The exact cost of Blue Origin's civilian mission is a bit of a mystery as the company does not disclose it. However, there is an acknowledgment at the bottom of the reservation page alerting the flyers that a "fully refundable deposit" of $150,000 will be collected to "begin the order process."

On its first crewed flight in 2021, Blue Origin had auctioned off a seat for $28 million, according to The New York Times.

Blue Origin's competitors, Virgin Galactic, have even offered rides between $200,000 and $450,000, according to the Associated Press.

Does Everyone Need To Pay?

But not everyone has to pay millions of dollars to make a journey to space. Celebrities like Star Trek star William Shatner and American television host Michael Strahan reportedly flew on the New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle for free as a "guest" of Blue Origin.

 Roman Chiporukha, co-founder of space travel booking company SpaceVIP, told The Observer that "It's not about money; it's about who you are, your social capital, whether you align with their launch purposes. It's kind of a package deal."

According to a CNN report, even on the April 14 flight, "some passengers" flew "free of charge," while others did not. The company declined to say who paid for their trip.