Vietnamese-American Amanda Nguyen launches into space today

The suborbital flight, scheduled to launch at 8:30 am local time (8:30 pm Hanoi time) from Launch Site One in West Texas, will carry a six-member all-female crew.

The mission is expected to last about 11 minutes and cross the Kármán line at 100km above earth—the internationally recognized boundary of space.

Nguyen will bring 169 Vietnamese lotus seeds (Nelumbo nucifera) on the journey.

The seeds, a symbol of resilience in Vietnamese culture, will be studied upon return to examine the effects of spaceflight on plant growth in collaboration with the Vietnam National Space Center.

The initiative is aimed at inspiring youth engagement in STEM and space exploration.

The NS-31 crew includes journalist and pilot Lauren Sánchez, fiancée of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; pop star Katy Perry; CBS Mornings host Gayle King; aerospace engineer and former NASA employee Aisha Bowe; film producer Kerianne Flynn; and Nguyen, who is also the founder and CEO of the civil rights non-profit RISE.

Nguyen, 34, is a Harvard graduate who interned at NASA and later worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the U.S. State Department.

In 2019, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy on behalf of sexual assault survivors.