Katy Perry takes astronaut lessons hours before space mission

Katy Perry is undertaking final preparations before she joins an all-female crew on a Blue Origin space flight.

The US pop star will join five other women for the first female-only mission in more than six decades.

The crew – made up of Perry, former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and journalist Lauren Sanchez – managed to get in some last-minute astronaut lessons in Texas on Sunday, according to photos shared online by BlueOrigin.

Perry also shared some snaps of her own, vowing to put “the ‘ass’ in astronaut” in the coming hours in a post with Ms Sanchez.

The two can be seen clad in blue jumpsuits, especially made by Ms Sanchez for the mission.

The US-based journalist told the New York Times earlier in the week that her jumpsuit design manages to “bring a little spice to space” while also being shaped to the female form.

Earlier on Sunday, Perry said she had been given “confirmation” that her journey on board the rocket on April 14 was written in the stars.

In a video posted to Instagram, she said she is “always looking for little confirmations from the heavens, from my guides, from my angels, from my higher self”.

“When I’m looking for it, it’s pretty loud,” she added.

During her Texan space training this week, Perry said she had noticed two unexpected coincidences linked to nicknames her mother calls her.

She said: “When I was invited to come on this voyage, I looked up the capsule. On the very front of it is the outline in the shape of a feather and when I saw that it was like a total confirmation because my mum has always called me feather.

“And so I’m in space training today and there’s a lot to digest. We’re almost finished with the day and they showed us the capsule and we run simulations in another capsule and tested the noise and what to expect and all these different things and they reveal the capsule name.

“The capsule’s name is Tortoise. A wave, just the most energetic wave, just shot through my body. And I was like ‘What? This capsule’s name is Tortoise?’

“My mum calls me two nicknames – feather and tortoise. What are the chances that I’m going to space on a rocket in a capsule with my symbol, the feather, called Tortoise?”

She added: “There are no coincidences, and I’m just so grateful for these confirmations and so grateful that I feel like something bigger than me is steering the ship.”

It will be the 11th human flight for the Blue Origin programme, which has taken passengers, including the company’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, to space since 2021.

Ms Sanchez said the mission is about inspiring others to “dream big” and praised the women on board as “incredible storytellers”.

Earlier in the week, Perry told the Associated Press that she plans to go boldly where other women have rarely gone before.

“I am talking to myself every day and going ‘You’re brave, you’re bold, you are doing this for the next generation to inspire so many different people but especially young girls to go, ‘I’ll go to space in the future.’ No limitations,” she said.

She added: “I’m really excited about the engineering of it all. I’m excited to learn more about STEM and just the math about what it takes to accomplish this type of thing.”

Blue Origin Flight NS-31 is the first launch with an all-female crew since Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo space flight in 1963.

The Bezos-funded rocket is set for lift-off on April 14 at 8.30am local time, or 2.30pm BST.

The craft will then fly through space for around four minutes before floating back down to Earth, with the entire journey taking a little over ten minutes.