Katy Perry reveals eerie 'sign' she spotted before being launched into space that almost sounds too strange to be true

When Katy Perry received the offer to sky-rocket into space as part of an all-female tourist group of astronauts, she naturally harboured some doubts.

After all, the endeavour is the first of its kind, with the spacecraft and mission - owned and arranged by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos - being totally autonomous, requiring no pilots, and seeing the crew free from needing to manually operate the vehicle.

While researching the mission, however, the American singer claims she stumbled across a heavenly sign to say 'yes', and jump into the project feet first.

Alongside Bezos' fiancé Lauren Sánchez and CBS presenter Gayle King, 40-year-old Perry will take off from its West Texas launch site at 8.30am local time (2.30pm for those tuning in from the UK), in the New Shepard rocket.

It is understood that the journey into space will last around 11 minutes, taking the crew over 100km above the Earth.

The launch will take place today (Instagram/@katyperry)

The mission will give passengers a few moments of weightlessness before the capsule containing them slowly starts travelling back to Earth. The group will then encounter a parachute-assisted soft landing, with the rocket booster itself landing approximately two miles from the launch site.

While organisers of the space launch are confident that all will go to plan, such an advanced mission comes with its fair share of life-threatening risks.

These concerns, mother-of-one Perry claim she and her family took into account - that was, until she received a divine sign to take the plunge.

Speaking on her Instagram Story today (14 April) - just hours head of the launch - the 'Firework' singer told listeners: "You know that I'm always looking for little confirmations from the heavens, from my guides, from the angels, from my higher self.

"You know when I ask for it and I am open to it, it's pretty loud."

Perry then revealed that, while researching the trip, she came across her supposed signal.

"So when I was invited to come on this voyage, I looked up at the capsule, and the capsule, on the very front of it, is the outline in the shape of a feather," the star - who was famously born into a religious family - explained.

"And when I saw that it was like a total confirmation, because my mom has always called me Feather."

After subsequently signing up to the trip, Perry disclosed that further, eerier signs came thick and fast.

Reflecting on one of her days training, she continued: "There's a lot to digest and we're almost finished for the day and they show us the capsule, we've run simulations in a different capsule.

"And they reveal the name of the capsule and the capsule's name is Tortoise."

She admitted: "A wave – just the most energetic wave just shot through my body and I was like, 'What this capsule's name is Tortoise?'. My mom calls me two nicknames: Feather and Tortoise.

"What are the chances that I'm going to space on a rocket in a capsule with my symbol the feather called Tortoise?

"And my mom calls me Tortoise. I will screenshot my mom's text messages when she calls me Tortoise."

The singer has been training for the mission for several weeks (Instagram/@katyperry)

Perry continued: "'There are no coincidences and I'm just so grateful for these confirmations and so grateful that I feel like something bigger than me is steering the ship."

The American Idol judge will also be joined by civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, former rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn on the mission - the first all-female trip into space since 1963.

Again, taking to social media, Perry penned recently of her upcoming project: "If you had told me that I would be part of the first-ever all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child.

"Although we didn't grow up with much, I never stopped looking at the world with hopeful WONDER!"