Blue Origin Announces 1st Launch Since Katy Perry

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Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin spaceflight company is preparing to send its next group of passengers on a brief trip high above Earth to witness a view few other civilians have ever seen.

The impending spaceflight would be Blue Origin's first since the company made headlines in April when a group of famous women, including pop star Katy Perry, boarded the company's spacecraft for a ride to the edge of space.

This time around, though, the crew is comprised not of celebrities, but of educators and entrepreneurs. Blue Origin announced Wednesday, May 21 , the names of the crew members who are due to fly on the company's famous New Shepard spacecraft when it lifts off again from rural West Texas.

The launch, the date for which has not yet been announced, would be New Shepard's 12th human spaceflight and 32nd flight overall.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos, best known for founding Amazon, is the founder of the private space technology company Blue Origin.

In addition to sending space tourists on brief joy rides to the edge of space, Blue Origin has also increasingly sought to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Blue Origin's massive New Glenn rocket, which flew on its inaugural flight test in January , is also being developed for future spaceflights. At 320 feet tall, the spacecraft rivals SpaceX's 400-foot Starship in size.

Even Amazon is competing with SpaceX by developing its own Kuiper internet satellite constellation in a direct challenge to Starlink.