Newly minted astronaut Katy Perry ranks going into space as 'second to being a mom'

Katy Perry has toured the world, won awards, sang for presidents and world leaders and more -- but going into space outranks all of those things.

Emerging from the capsule following her Blue Origin space flight on Monday morning, Katy, who can now officially be called an astronaut, said that her experience was "second [only] to being a mom." She added that she wanted to "model courage and worthiness and fearlessness," not only for her daughter Daisy, but for the "fearless women" in her life, like her mother and her sister.

Speaking of Daisy, Katy brought an actual daisy with her in the capsule.

"Daisies are common flowers but they grow through any condition. They go through cement, they go through cracks, they grow through walls," she explained. "They are resilient, they are powerful, they are strong, they're everywhere."

Following the flight, a fellow member of the crew, Gayle King, revealed that Katy had sung a bit of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" during the flight. Asked why, Katy said, "I've covered that song in the past and obviously like my higher self is always steering the ship because I had no clue that one day I would decide to sing a little bit of that in space."

"But I think that it's not about me, it's not about me singing my songs," she continued. "It's about a collective energy in there. It's about us, it's about making space for future women and taking up space and belonging."

"And it's about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it," Katy said. "This is all for the benefit of Earth."