Members of the Kardashian-Jenner family gifted Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez a present that’s out of this world for taking part in a historic Blue Origin spaceflight.
After blasting off to space on a Blue Origin rocket, Lauren Sánchez received a cosmic luxury gift from the Kardashian-Jenner family.
The fiancée of the aerospace company’s founder Jeff Bezos shared a photo of a flying saucer-shaped, crystal-encrusted Judith Leiber “UFO Orbiter” clutch on her Instagram Stories April 16 while thanking family friends Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kris Jenner.
After Lauren unveiled the item, Kris reposted the pic of the handbag—which retailed for $6,995 before it sold out—on her Instagram Stories, writing, “Out of this world!”
“We love youuuu,” the matriarch added, “and are so proud of you!!!”
Kris and Khloe traveled to Texas to take part in a star-studded sendoff for the launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and capsule, which was carrying Lauren, Katy Perry, Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, activist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn. It marked the first all-female spaceflight in more than 60 years.
The group flew just above the Kármán line, an invisible boundary at an altitude of 62 miles that is widely accepted as the edge of space, NBC News reported. And after briefly experiencing weightlessness, the crew returned to Earth after a total flight time of about 11 minutes.
Instagram / Kris Jenner
“We’re here to support our girlfriend and our friends,” Kris said about Lauren at the launch event, before liftoff. “We’re just so honored to be here to support them and watch this amazing part of history.”
Stefanie Keenan/VF25/WireImage for Vanity Fair
Noting that she was “super proud of the girls—every one of them,” she added, “it’s very brave thing to do.”
As for Khloe, she shared that she thought the flight was “so empowering” and referenced being the mother of daughter True Thompson, 7. When asked if she and her mom would be next to fly, Khloe told reporters at the launch that the Blue Origin trip “made it a little more enticing.”
Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood
Read on for more on the all-female crew’s trip to space…
(E! News and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images
What Is Blue Origin?
Founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos in 2000, Blue Origin is a private space company headquartered in Kent, Washington.
According to its website, the organization aims to leverage space’s resources to benefit Earth as well as expand humanity’s presence in space through increased transportation and the creation of living and working destinations in the low Earth orbit.
Blue Origin says it’s working to achieve these goals by building reusable rockets and engines to reduce the cost of space travel, make space travel more accessible to civilians and drive sustainability.
“Our vision is millions of people living and working in space,” Bezos said during a talk at the 2016 Pathfinder Awards. “We want to reduce the cost of getting into space dramatically by focusing on reusability.”
So how much does it cost to book a seat on a Blue Origin flight? While the company doesn’t list its prices on its website, it does note a $150,000 deposit is required.
Blue Origin
What Is New Shepard?
Named after astronaut Alan Shepard—who made history when he became the first American to travel to space in 1961—New Shepard is what Blue Origin describes as a “fully reusable, suborbital rocket system built for human flight.”
Six people can sit in New Shepard’s pressurized crew capsule. But don’t look for a pilot seat. Because as Blue Origin’s website notes, “The vehicle is fully autonomous—there are no pilots.”
New Shepard first launched in 2015 as part of a flight test program that consisted of 16 successful tests, which were completed in 2021.
In July of that year, Bezos and his brother Mark took part in New Shepard’s first human flight along with an auction winner that secured a seat for a whopping $28 million. William Shatner and Michael Strahan were also among the travelers to board the vehicle later that year (though they were on separate missions).
The upcoming voyage will mark New Shepard’s 31st mission (hence the name NS-31) and its 11th human flight.
Blue Origin
