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The first pop star in space has landed, and her name is Katy Perry.
The “Firework” superstar launched on a suborbital trip with five celebrity women on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket on Monday (April 14), cementing her status as the first pop singer in space. She even sang “What A Wonderful World” on the trip after seeing Earth from above.
But that musical milestone in space history could have looked very different, because Katy Perry isn’t the first performer with space ambitions. In fact, megastars Lance Bass, Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber all hoped to be first at one time or another in the last decade. Here’s a look at those efforts and our take on why they fizzled.
Lance Bass
The first pop singer to try to go to space was Lance Bass of NSYNC, who landed a $20 million trip to the International Space Station in 2002 backed by a documentary. He went through training at Russia’s Star City to launch on a Soyuz rocket and spacecraft, but the documentary’s insurance company backed out weeks before launch and he lost his seat.
“I was so very highly disappointed, but it was still amazing to be able to finish that training,” Bass told Space.com in 2023.
Related: ‘I feel super connected to love’: Katy Perry reflects on her historic space launch with Blue Origin (video)
Beyonce and Jay-Z
A decade after Bass’s space attempt, we got word that megastar Beyonce and husband Jay-Z may have been in talks to make the first music video in space during a launch on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, according to a slew of media reports. At the time, Virgin Galactic was still doing glide tests with SpaceShipTwo (its first space launch was in 2018).
We never heard more about whether Beyonce and Jay-Z were among the 700 or so people who reserved a Virgin Galactic trip back then, when tickets cost $250,000 (the company declined to confirm it to me at the time). If they did, we also don’t know if they kept the reservation after a fatal test flight crash in 2014. But it’s still possible they are still on that list, waiting their turn to fly.
Justin Bieber
Next up to was Justin Bieber, who booked a trip with Virgin Galactic in 2013. Unlike the space rumors of Beyonce and Jay-Z, Bieber’s flight (which would also include his manager Scooter Braun) was apparently a lock: The founder of Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, confirmed it on Twitter (now known as X).
“Great to hear @justinbieber & @scooterbraun are latest @virgingalactic future astronauts. Congrats, see you up there!” Branson wrote on Twitter in June 2013. Branson would eventually fly on the first passenger Virgin Galactic spaceflight in 2021.
“@richardbranson @scooterbraun @virgingalactic let’s shoot a music video in SPACE!! #nextLEVEL,” Bieber then wrote back on Twitter.
LIke Beyonce, Bieber may still be among the hundreds waiting for their turn to fly on Virgin Galactic. The company, which currently sells suborbital trips for $650,000 a seat (SpaceShipTwo seats eight people — six passengers and two pilots), flew a series of space tourism and science flights with SpaceShipTwo before pausing to build a new “Delta” series of space planes for passenger flights. The first of those new ships is expected to be completed in 2026.
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga reportedly bought a Virgin Galactic flight in 2013 as well.
The pop superstar was expected to launch on SpaceShipTwo in 2015 to sing a song as part of the Zero G Colony, a three-day festival planned for Spaceport America in New Mexico, the home port of Virgin Galactic. But like Bieber, Gaga would face a long wait (she still hasn’t flown), since Virgin Galactic was still years away from its first test spaceflight in 2018 at the time of booking.
Sarah Brightman
Last, but not least, is singer Sarah Brightman, who booked a 10-day trip to the International Space Station with Space Adventures in 2015 that she financed herself. (The total price was never disclosed.)
Brightman underwent spaceflight training with Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, the Gagarin Cosomonaut Training Center and Energia, the makers of the Soyuz rocket. But despite being scheduled to launch on Sept. 1, 2015 on a Russian Soyuz rocket, Brightman called the space mission off in May of that year, citing family concerns.
“Ms. Brightman said that, for personal family reasons, her intentions have had to change, and she is postponing her cosmonaut training and flight plans at this time,” Brightman’s representatives wrote at the time. “She would like to express her extreme gratitude to Roscosmos, Energia, GCTC (Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center), Star City, NASA and all the cosmonauts and astronauts for their support during this exciting time in her life.”
That brings us to now, with Katy Perry safely back on Earth and in the record books as the first pop star in space. The only question now is who may be next to fly — and if any of those above still in Virgin Galactic’s reservation line may clinch that number two spot.
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