Princess Cruises has officially named its newest ship, the 3,660-guest Sky Princess, at a ceremony in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, yesterday (8 December 2019).

Former NASA astronaut Captain Kathryn ‘Kay’ Hire and former NASA engineer Frances ‘Poppy’ Northcutt have been named the vessel’s godmothers. In true maritime tradition, they blessed Sky Princess before signalling the release of a champagne bottle which smashed against the ship, officially welcoming the ship into the line’s fleet.

Northcutt served as the first female mission control engineer when NASA made history with its mission to the moon and won the Presidential Medal of Freedom after her team’s calculations brought the crew of Apollo 13 home safely.

Hire served as Captain in the US Navy reserve before joining NASA in 1989 as an engineer. She flew to space for the first time in 1998 as a mission specialist on the space shuttle Columbia and for the second time in 2010 on the space shuttle Endeavour to help assemble the International Space Station.

Other prestigious women of NASA recognised at the ceremony included:

· Dr Mae Jemison – the first black woman to travel to outer space
· Dr Ellen Ochoa – Director of the Johnson Space Center and the first Hispanic woman in space
· Eileen Collins – the first woman to command a space shuttle
· Peggy Whiston – the first woman to command the International Space Stations
· Kathryn D. Sullivan – the first woman to join a spacewalk

President of Princess Cruises, Jan Swartz, said: “As we celebrate our newest, most technologically advanced ship – one whose spirit of adventure and discovery match the grandeur of her name, Sky Princess, we also applaud the groundbreaking women of the U.S. space programme.

“And our godmothers, Captain Kay Hire and Poppy Northcutt, remind us all of what we can achieve when we aim for the sky.”

Sky Princess is the first purpose-built ship to offer the wearable OceanMedallion device to all guests. Other innovative new features include the Sky Suites,

Sky Princess is sailing roundtrip from Copenhagen calling at Oslo, Berlin (Warnemunde), Tallinn, St Petersburg (overnight), Helsinki and Stockholm on 24 April 2021. Prices from £1799pp with up to $200pp onboard spending money.

Visit princess.com for more information.