As soon as Gayle King kissed the ground following the all-women Blue Origin trip to space with Lauren Sánchez and Katy Perry, other celebrities were quick to criticize the trip and its extensive media coverage. Within hours, a long list of detractors spoke up, including Emily Ratajkowski and Olivia Wilde.
Days before the trip, Olivia Munn referred to it as “gluttonous” during her time as a Today guest host. “Space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind,” she added. “What are they gonna do up there that has made it better for us down here?”
In a post-flight interview with Extra, King said she had heard about the criticism. “I know there are cranky Yankees. I know there are some haters,” the CBS Mornings anchor responded. “I’m not going to let people steal my joy.”
King explained that she also felt skeptical about renewed attention on space flight until she got involved with the trip. “I think it’s good that we can really address [this], because I was one of those people before I went on this flight and before I became educated. ‘Why are we spending so much money on space when there’s so much to do here on Earth?’ I was one of those people.”
The anchor added that she was persuaded by Blue Origin’s environmental pitch for space exploration, adding that a few of her fellow astronauts were conducting research on the trip. “What Blue Origin does—their intention is to figure out a way to harness the waste here and figure out a way to put it in space to make the planet Earth a better place,” she said. “I still have a hard time calling myself an astronaut, but two of the astronauts on board—[Aisha Bowe] is a rocket scientist, [Amanda Nguyen] is an astrophysicist-activist—were actually doing experiments. Every time one of those goes up, you get some information that can be used for something else, so I wish people would do more due diligence.”
She encouraged critics to try it themselves. “Then my question is, ‘Have y’all been to space?’ Go to space or go to Blue Origin and see what they do and then come back and say, ‘This is a terrible thing,’” she continued. “One of the things they’re trying to do—if you get enough people who are interested, it doesn’t have to be that expensive.”
King also commented on the viral photo that illustrated her trepidation as she boarded the flight. “Not concerned, that’s called terrified,” she said. “I was very, very nervous. I do wish, looking at those pictures, that I would have smiled a little bit. Normally it’s not good to be a meme, but I actually think these are kind of funny because you see everybody ahead of me and behind me, they’re smiling. They’re so happy, they can’t wait to get on board. And I’m just thinking, ‘I have to follow these instructions. I’m saying my mantra. I want to get in the seat, I want to strap in correctly.’ I was just trying to get it right.”
She said she conquered her usual fear of flying through meditation and prayer. “I had a meditation teacher, Bob Roth, who was a great help to me. I was saying my mantra over and over,” King said. “The night before, Aisha and I had a Zoom call with Bishop T.D. Jakes, who did a prayer for us, which was great. The morning of, I talked to Tyler Perry, who’s in Italy—who’s a great prayer, by the way. I talked to him. He was very comforting to me, so I felt prayed up and loved. I felt ready.”
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