Vietnam president sends congratulatory letter to Amanda Nguyen, first woman of Vietnamese origin to fly into space

Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, organized a flight of New Shepard, a fully reusable, suborbital rocket system, with a crew of six women in West Texas, the U.S., on April 14 (local time).

The flight, called mission NS-31, is the 11th human spaceflight project of Blue Origin. The six participants are outstanding women in many fields, including Vietnamese American Nguyen - founder and general director of the non-governmental organization RISE.

A screenshot shows Amanda Ngoc Nguyen on a flight into space organized by Blue Origin, April 14, 2025.

The New Shepard's journey was a great success, reaching an altitude of 100 km in space and returning safely. After the flight, Nguyen marked herself as the first woman of Vietnamese origin to fly into space.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the U.S. Nguyen Quoc Dung attended the New Shepard mission and presented a letter from State President Luong Cuong to Nguyen. In the letter, the President expressed his joy and pride that for the first time a woman of Vietnamese origin had flown into space, affirming the talent and intelligence of Vietnamese people in the U.S. and around the world.

The President's letter emphasized that in 2025, Vietnam and the U.S. will celebrate the 30th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations and in the overall relationship between the two countries, Vietnam highly appreciates the positive contributions of the Vietnamese community in the U.S. to the development and progress of the U.S., as well as promoting the Vietnam-U.S. cooperative relationship.

The President also highly appreciated the cooperation between Amanda Nguyen and the Vietnam National Space Center (VNSC), helping to promote the cooperative relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the U.S. Nguyen Quoc Dung (R) presents a congratulatory letter from President Luong Cuong to Amanda Nguyen, April 14, 2025. Photo by VNA

Born on Oct. 10, 1991, Nguyen graduated from the Harvard University and interned at NASA in 2013. She then worked at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and then served as deputy White House liaison at the U.S. State Department.

In November 2014, she founded Rise, a non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting the civil rights of survivors of sexual assault. In 2019, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to fight for the rights of victims of sexual assault.