Gayle King Defends ‘Expensive’ 11-Minute Space Flight After ‘Disrespectful’ Backlash
Gayle King has been on the receiving end of backlash and criticism from pop fans, outspoken celebrities, and even some of her own friends since returning to Earth from the 11-minute space flight she took on Monday with Jeff Bezos’ space tourism company Blue Origin. The broadcast journalist, who overcame an intense fear of flying to experience the trip, issued a challenge of her own to those expressing criticism: Blast off or back off.
“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 said on Extra, noting that she wishes “people would do more due diligence” before calling out the expenses associated with the flight and its somewhat flawed mission statement. “Every time a flight goes up, they get some type of information that can be used for something else,” she added, referencing the Blue Origin’s goal “to figure out a way to harness the waste here and put it in space to make the Earth a better place.”
NASA previously reported that there are already tons of orbital debris, or “space junk,” moving at top speeds around low Earth orbit, or LEO. “Due to the rate of speed and volume of debris in LEO, current and future space-based services, explorations, and operations pose a safety risk to people and property in space and on Earth,” the agency stated in 2023.
It’s possible that Blue Origin made enough of a compelling argument to get King and her fellow capsule occupants — singer Katy Perry, journalist (and Bezos’ fiancée) Lauren Sánchez, sexual assault survivor advocate and Nobel nominee Amanda Nguyễn, film producer and documentarian Kerianne Flynn, and former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe — to have faith in Bezos’ mission. Framing it as a feminist milestone for it being the first all-female space flight since 1963, when cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, couldn’t have hurt, either.
“I know there are cranky Yankees, I know there are some haters, but I’m not gonna let people steal my joy and steal the joy of what we did or what we accomplished that day,” King said. “I’m just not going to let it in. I’m not. And these are some of my friends that are throwing shade!”
Regardless, others haven’t been convinced.
“I think that this space mission is confusing to people because seeing women and people of color in spaces like science and politics that have not previously included them feels and looks like, really looks like — optically looks like — progress,” Emily Ratajkowski shared in a TikTok video that questioned the point of the flight. “But the truth is, is that having a man who has gained his power and become a part of the one percent purely through exploitation and greed deciding to take his fiancée and a few other famous women to space for space tourism is not progress.”
Olivia Munn added: “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. 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?”
King expressed disappointment toward people framing the voyage as a “ride,” noting a double standard in the response to the all-female trip versus the 10-suborbital Blue Origin flight with humans aboard that have carried men into space. “You never see a man, a male astronaut, who’s going up in space and they say, ‘Oh, he took a ride,’” she said. “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.”
Still, she acknowledged that she does understand where some of them are coming from. “I think it’s good that we can really address it,” she said, “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 on Earth?’ I was one of those people.” She also knows that Blue Origin’s flights aren’t necessarily financially accessible, but considered: “If you get enough people who are interested, it doesn’t have to be that expensive.”
Blue Origin and its passengers have not publicly revealed the total cost of a New Shepard spaceflight, but the website for the aerospace company does note that “Blue Origin will collect a $150,000 USD fully refundable deposit to begin the order process.” A seat on its first flight auctioned for $28 million.
When King returned to Earth, she reflected on what she experienced during her three to four minutes of weightlessness. “You look down at the planet and you think, that’s where we came from?” she said. “To me it’s such a reminder about how we need to do better, be better.”
