CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King said her 11-minute spaceflight on Monday proved to her that everyone should see the Earth from above—regardless of the high cost of boarding the space-bound rocket.
When asked what she made of critics who found the flight “frivolous,” King told her CBS Mornings co-hosts that the flight changed how she, a nervous flier, thought about space travel. She also heaped praise on billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin, which sent her into space.
King took the all-female flight alongside singer Katy Perry, activist Amanda Nguyen, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sánchez. The celebrity-laden flight came as economists have expressed fear of an upcoming recession.
“When you look at the work that Blue Origin does to keeping us safe and always trying to advance the cause and what they’re trying to do with the company and how they operate,” she said, speaking alongside Bowe. “I don’t work for Blue Origin, but I think I was one of those people that go ‘I don’t know why we got to do this’ until you educate yourself and see what is happening there. I think you’ll have a very different perspective.”
What King didn’t mention was the high cost of taking one of those flights—or whether she herself had to pay for her seat.
Blue Origin does not disclose how much a seat for its New Shepard rocket program costs, but it does make interested potential astronauts agree to pay a $150,000 deposit to begin the process.
A ticket aboard the first Blue Origin flight in 2021 set the bar high. The winning bid in an auction to claim the first seat was $28 million, with 7,600 people from 159 countries participating.
In comparison, billionaire Richard Branson’s space tourism competitor Virgin Galactic offers its trips at a modest discount—$600,000, with a similar $150,000 deposit.
It’s unclear whether King had to pay to take her trip, and Blue Origin did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
Blue Origin spokesperson Bill Kircos told CNN on Monday that some of the passengers paid for the flight, though he declined to say who.
Past Blue Origin passengers include Star Trek legend William Shatner (who joked last month that he was worth $10, but has made a fortune from the space franchise, Priceline commercials, and convention appearances); Good Morning America host Michael Strahan (who makes up one-third of ABC’s $75 million payday to its GMA hosts, according to Puck); and Bezos (the second richest man on Earth).
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