Trần TrungOn April 14th, a flight took off from a rocket launch site in West Texas, USA. The space journey was conducted by Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin and is part of the New Shepard program.
This journey aims to inspire future generations and promote the development of space tourism.
A special aspect of this mission is the all-female crew. This marks the first time in over 60 years that an all-female group has flown into space since the solo flight of the Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova in 1963.
The six-member crew includes pop singer Katy Perry, journalist Lauren Sanchez, CBS host Gayle King, Vietnamese-American entrepreneur Amanda Nguyen, former rocket engineer Aisha Bowe, and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn.
The New Shepard spacecraft took the all-female crew beyond the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space, over 100km above the ground. The flight lasted 11 minutes, and the astronauts had the opportunity to view the blue planet in a weightless state.
It is known that the spacecraft operates completely autonomously and does not require a pilot. In a floating state outside of space, Vietnamese-American space researcher Amanda Nguyen waved and said "Hello Vietnam," capturing the attention of the Vietnamese online community.
"At this moment, I just want everyone to understand that: Everyone can heal. There is no dream too wild, and if it is too wild, then go out there, fly out into space, you can achieve it all," Amanda Nguyen shared upon returning to the ground.
Amanda Nguyen (born in 1991) is known as a social entrepreneur and human rights activist of Vietnamese descent in the United States. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to protect sexual assault victims in the U.S.
She was sexually assaulted as a senior at Harvard University in 2013 and saw flaws in the legal system. She founded the non-profit organization Rise, focusing on protecting the rights of victims like herself.
Subsequently, Amanda drafted the Survivor's Bill of Rights, which was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2016.
Congresswoman Mimi Walters stated that Amanda Nguyen has made a revolutionary step, ensuring basic rights for sexual assault victims.
In 2013, Amanda interned at NASA. During this time, she nurtured her passion to become a space traveler. She also worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Amanda was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the state of California in 2019, honored by Time magazine as one of the Women of the Year in 2022, and received Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 award.
