Gayle King has caught wind of the negative criticism surrounding her recent trip to space, and she is hitting the haters back with a response.
The “CBS Mornings” co-host was one of six women to embark on the Blue Origin mission to the edge of space on Monday, April 14.
While the all-female trip was historic, it was an experience that was criticized by many who felt it was a misuse of millions of dollars, and in no way beneficial for the rest of mankind. King took on the backlash in an April 15 interview with Extra TV.
Sticking beside her decision to embark on the journey, she said, “We use space technology all the time. Whether it’s your GPS, whether it’s your satellite, that doesn’t just happen. Every time a flight goes up they get some type of information.
“Every time one of those goes up you get some information that can be used for something else. So I wish people will do more due diligence. And then my question is ‘Have y’all been to space? Have you been in space?’ Go to space or go to Blue Origin and see what they do and how they do and then come back and say this is a terrible thing.”
Jeff Bezos is the founder of Blue Origin and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, was one of the women who accompanied Gayle King on the flight.
“Dark Horse” singer Katy Perry, rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn also were aboard the flight, making it the first all-female space mission crew.
King noticed that their expedition was being simply called a “ride” by the public which she hinted might be rooted in misogyny.
“I don’t like that people are calling it a ride,” she said. You never see a man, a male astronaut who’s going up in space and they said, ‘Oh he took a ride.’ We actually duplicated the route that [the first American astronaut] Alan Shepard did,” she continued.
“That’s why this particular capsule is called The New Shepard. We duplicated that route. No one said, ‘He took that ride.’ It’s always referred to as a flight or a journey. So I feel that that’s a little disrespectful to what the mission was and the work that Blue Origin does.”
All in all, King is proud of herself and her crew members even if some of her celebrity peers are not.
“I know there are cranky yankees, I know there are some haters but I’m not going to let people steal my joy and steal the joy of what we did or what we accomplished that day,” she said. “I’m just not going to let it in. I’m not. And these are some of my friends that are throwing shade.”
Olivia Munn was one of the first celebs to make a statement about it during her appearance on “Today With Jenna and Friends” on April 3. She said, “I know this probably isn’t the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now. I know this is probably obnoxious, but like, it’s so much money to go to space, and there’s a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs.”
“What’s the point? Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride? I think it’s a bit gluttonous,” Munn added. “Space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind. What are they gonna do up there that has made it better for us down here?”
Model Emily Ratajkowski said she was “disgusted” by the mission and called it “end time sh-t.”
She added, “You say that you care about Mother Earth, and it’s about Mother Earth, and you go up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that is single-handedly destroying the planet. … Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what?”
Fans commented under ExtraTV’s video with more backlash for Oprah Winfrey’s bestie.
One person said, “Never heard more bullsh-t in my life. Waste of money and time. Did absolutely nothing. Except pollution.”
A second wrote, “Good grief.”
A third commented, “It was a ride .. an unnecessary ride.”
It’s not clear how much it costs to execute these expeditions, but in 2021 they auctioned off a seat for $28 million.
Blue Origin claims its mission is to expand human presence into space with the vision that people will get to work and live in space in the future. According to the website, the purpose is “to restore and sustain Earth” using space’s resources.
