New Delhi, April 15 -- In 1963, when the Soviet Union launched Valentina Tereshkova into space as the first woman to make such a visit, it was understood she was a trained astronaut (or cosmonaut). Now that Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin has taken an all-female crew on a sub-orbital space flight, the spotlight has been on its most famous member, Katy Perry, a pop singer.

Alongside her, broadcaster Gayle King, journalist Lauren Sanchez, rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn were strapped in before they roared off and went past the Karman line that marks space apart from Earth's outer atmosphere.

The craft they used was autonomous, with no pilot. Each passenger is thus better descr...