Blue Origin continued to wrack up the air miles, blasting off its 31st New Shepard rocket mission in the space of a decade, with a headline-grabbing all-female crew including aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe and musical artist Katy Perry which Reuters reported was the first of its kind for more than 60 years.

The flight yesterday (14 April) was the 11th Blue Origin conducted with humans on board using its New Shepard rocket and brought the total flown to-date to 58, including a quartet which have flown twice.

Also on board were entrepreneur Amanda Nguyen, broadcast journalist Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and journalist and author Lauren Sanchez.

Phil Joyce, SVP of New Shepard, hailed the crew of “trailblazers”, who he expects to be an inspiration “for generations”.

The flight used a launch site in West Texas and is the latest advance in Blue Origin’s broader commercial space ambitions, which focus heavily on so-called space tourism.

Blue Origin achieved a milestone in January with the inaugural flight of its reusable New Glenn rocket, upping competition with Space X.

Even with the backing of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin faces some tough financial choices in terms of continuing to fund launches, though just won a portion of a huge US government national security contract.