Lauren Sanchez has always had a thing for the skies, which is no surprise for the acclaimed helicopter pilot and fiancée of the world’s second-richest man, Jeff Bezos, worth $223 billion. But this time, she is taking things to an entirely new level. The soon-to-be wife of Amazon’s founder is heading to space with an all-female, six-person crew as part of Blue Origin’s New Shepard program’s latest flight.
The owner of the aerial film production firm Black Ops Aviation has been planning this mission since November 2022, assembling a team of remarkable women after her tech mogul fiancé flew to the edge of space on the first crewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket with his brother, Mark Bezos.
Now, life has come full circle for Sanchez, a woman who has piloted helicopters, dreamed of space, and even penned a children’s book about it. And what better way to fulfill that dream than with a centibillionaire fiancé who owns the very space company that can make it happen?
It still took more than two years, but now, nothing is stopping Sanchez, Katy Perry, Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, research scientist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn from making history. The group will embark on an 11-minute flight just above the Kármán line, about 62 miles above Earth’s surface.
Sanchez, however, won’t be in the pilot’s seat this time. Blue Origin clarified in a statement that “every person on board is a crew member” and that there are “no pilots” since the New Shepard spacecraft is fully autonomous. Still, it is a remarkable feat, one that could easily be dubbed her celestial bachelorette party, shared with an extraordinary group of women in space. While the term may sound frivolous, there is nothing ordinary about this event. Cementing it as a historic moment, the aerospace firm confirmed that this will be the first all-female crew to travel to space in decades, a record for the company. Blue Origin also made history in October 2021 when Star Trek actor William Shatner became the oldest person to travel to space at age 90.
Now, Sanchez, a self-proclaimed helicopter mom who once surprised her son with a fly-by at his football practice, is taking things to the next level with a crew of women who are unapologetically “taking up space.” She shared in an Instagram post, “I really see this group as explorers and storytellers, each of us about to be changed by a remarkable view of our beautiful planet. The countdown starts now! #takingupspace.”
One person who won’t be joining them? Bezos. “As much as he wants to go on this flight, I’m going to have to hold him back,” Sanchez said with a smile. “He’ll be cheering us all on from the sidelines.”
The helicopter pilot once set out to become a flight attendant, and failed-
At 18, Lauren Sanchez left home for Los Angeles with dreams of becoming a flight attendant. But even that goal came crashing down when she was told she didn’t meet Southwest Airlines’ weight requirement. “Back then, they weighed you, and I weighed 121 pounds,” she recalled of the 1989 mandatory weigh-in she failed. “They said, ‘You need to be 115.’” Decades later, fate had other plans. If asked today whether she’d still want to be a flight attendant, Sanchez’s answer would likely be, “I don’t want to be a stewardess, I want to be the pilot!”
Lauren Sanchez’s deep connection with the skies-
From helicopters to space travel, Sanchez’s life has revolved around flight. In addition to her upcoming mission, she founded Black Ops Aviation in 2016, one of the first female-owned aerial film production companies specializing in television and film. “I don’t know why more women don’t do it,” she once said. Sanchez frequently pilots Bezos and their families around the world, making it a point to get into the cockpit at least three times a week to stay sharp on instruments, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Even her storytelling takes flight, literally. She authored a children’s book, The Fly Who Flew to Space, a New York Times and USA Today Bestseller, inspired by a moment in a helicopter. “I was in the helicopter, and there was a fly,” Sanchez shared. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, look, a fly who flew! This is such a great children’s book.’ And it stuck.” In the book, the protagonist, Flynn, embarks on a journey around Earth before reuniting with his family.
Now, Sanchez is about to embark on a journey of her own, one for the history books. Sanchez’s bachelorette (if she hasn’t thought of it, we hope this makes her ponder), this time, in space.
