The first Vietnamese woman is about to fly into space

The flight, scheduled to launch from Launch Site One in West Texas at 8:30 a.m. local time and lasting about 11 minutes, will take the astronauts across the Kármán line at an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 miles) — the widely recognized boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space.

The six members of the NS-31 crew include: Lauren Sánchez - journalist, pilot and fiancee of billionaire Jeff Bezos; Katy Perry - famous pop singer; Gayle King - host of the TV show "CBS Mornings"; Aisha Bowe - aerospace engineer and former employee of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Kerianne Flynn - independent film producer and Amanda Nguyen - civil rights activist and astronaut, founder of the non-profit organization RISE.

The flight will be live-streamed on Blue Origin's website and other platforms, starting about 90 minutes before the New Shepard spacecraft launches.

Amanda Nguyen was born on October 10, 1991. She graduated from Harvard University and interned at NASA in 2013. She then worked at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and then served as deputy White House liaison at the US State Department. In November 2014, Amanda founded Rise, a non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting the civil rights of survivors of sexual assault. In 2019, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to fight for the rights of victims of sexual assault.

The NS-31 mission not only marks a major gender milestone in commercial spaceflight, but also aims to inspire generations of women and girls to enter STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. Crew members emphasize that women can pursue science while expressing their individuality, including fashion and style.

This is the first all-female crewed flight since Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova flew solo into space in 1963 aboard the Vostok 6 spacecraft, marking a major step forward in promoting diversity and inclusion in the space industry.

The New Shephard spacecraft is a small, reusable rocket system that serves as a stepping stone to deeper space exploration aspirations, including the development of heavy-lift rockets and lunar landers.