Katy Perry Launches into Space with All-Female Crew on Blue Origin Rocket

(FILES) US singer Katy Perry attends the Baby2Baby gala at Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California, November 9, 2024. (Photo by Michael Tran / AFP)
(FILES) US singer Katy Perry attends the Baby2Baby gala at Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California, November 9, 2024. (Photo by Michael Tran / AFP)
TT
20

Katy Perry Launches into Space with All-Female Crew on Blue Origin Rocket

(FILES) US singer Katy Perry attends the Baby2Baby gala at Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California, November 9, 2024. (Photo by Michael Tran / AFP)
(FILES) US singer Katy Perry attends the Baby2Baby gala at Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California, November 9, 2024. (Photo by Michael Tran / AFP)

Pop star Katy Perry and five other women launched into space on a Blue Origin rocket and successfully returned to earth on Monday, marking the first all-female spaceflight in more than 60 years.

The crew lifted off on a New Shepard rocket from West Texas at 9:31 a.m. ET (1331 GMT) and traveled to the edge of space, where they 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 space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.

The six-person crew also included Bezos' fiancée Lauren Sanchez, CBS host Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, scientist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn. 



Kim Kardashian Will Testify in Paris Trial About Jewelry Heist That Upended Her Life 

US socialite Kim Kardashian arrives for the 4th Annual Academy Museum Gala at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, October 19, 2024. (AFP)
US socialite Kim Kardashian arrives for the 4th Annual Academy Museum Gala at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, October 19, 2024. (AFP)
TT
20

Kim Kardashian Will Testify in Paris Trial About Jewelry Heist That Upended Her Life 

US socialite Kim Kardashian arrives for the 4th Annual Academy Museum Gala at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, October 19, 2024. (AFP)
US socialite Kim Kardashian arrives for the 4th Annual Academy Museum Gala at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, October 19, 2024. (AFP)

The last time Kim Kardashian faced the men that police say robbed her, she was bound with zip ties and held at gunpoint, and feared she might die. On Tuesday, nearly a decade later, she returns to Paris to testify against them.

One of the most recognizable figures on the planet is expected to take the stand against the 10 men accused of orchestrating the 2016 robbery that left her locked in a marble bathroom while masked assailants made off with more than $6 million in jewels.

Kardashian is set to speak about the trauma that reshaped her life and redefined the risks of celebrity in the age of social media. Her appearance is expected to be the most emotionally charged moment of a trial that began last month.

Court officials are bracing for a crowd, and security will be tight. A second courtroom has been opened for journalists following via video feed.

Kardashian’s testimony is expected to revisit, in painful detail, how intruders zip-tied her hands, demanded her ring, and left her believing she might never see her children again.

Twelve suspects were originally charged. One has died. Another has been excused from proceedings due to serious illness. Most are in their 60s and 70s — dubbed les papys braqueurs, or “the grandpa robbers,” by the French press — but investigators insist they were no harmless retirees. Authorities have described them as a seasoned and coordinated criminal group.

Two of the defendants have admitted being at the scene. The others deny any involvement — some even claim they didn’t know who Kardashian was. But police say the group tracked her movements through her own social media posts, which flaunted her jewelry, pinpointed her location, and exposed her vulnerability.

The heist transformed Kardashian into a cautionary tale of hyper-visibility in the digital age.

In the aftermath, she withdrew from public life. She developed severe anxiety and later described symptoms of agoraphobia. “I hated to go out,” she said in a 2021 interview. “I didn’t want anybody to know where I was ... I just had such anxiety.”

Her lawyers confirmed she would appear in court. “She has tremendous appreciation and admiration for the French judicial system,” they wrote, adding that she hopes the trial proceeds “in an orderly fashion ... and with respect for all parties.”

Once dismissed in parts of the French press as a reality TV spectacle — and lambasted by Karl Lagerfeld for being too flashy — Kardashian now returns as a key witness in a case that has forced a wider reckoning with how celebrity, crime, and perception collide.

Her lawyers say she is “particularly grateful” to French authorities — and ready to confront those who attacked her with dignity.