Gayle King Addresses ‘Disrespectful’ Backlash from Blue Origin Space Flight

Gayle King is defending her journey to space.

In an interview with Extra, King addressed criticism over her participation in Monday’s (April 14) historic, all-female space mission sponsored by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ exploration company.

“I wish people would do more due diligence,” King said. “And 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.’”

King took the 11-minute journey to space with the other notable names, including pop star Katy Perry and Bezos’ fiancé Lauren Sánchez. The Blue Origin space mission was touted as a feminist win and a tribute to life on Earth.

However, critics slammed references citing the women as “astronauts” and said the group was simply contributing to marketing for Blue Origin’s expensive flights to space. Blue Origin also faced backlash for contributing to pollution on Earth.

King admitted that she was also a skeptic of the mission before doing her research.

“I think it’s good that we can really address it … because I was one of those people before I went on this flight and before I became educated,” The CBS Mornings host said, adding that Blue Origin’s “intention” is more noble than she thought.

“To figure out a way to harness the waste here and put it in space to make the Earth a better place,” King said of Blue Origin’s mission. “Every time a flight goes up, they get some type of information that can be used for something else.”

King also suggested that some of the criticism was rooted in sexism.

“You never see a man, a male astronaut, who’s going up in space and they say, ‘Oh, he took a ride.’ It’s always referred to as a flight or a journey, so I feel that’s a little disrespectful to what the mission was and the work that Blue Origin does,” she said.