Gayle King, Lauren Sanchez clap back at critics over Blue Origin mission
The all-female Blue Origin space flight team - including Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez - came under criticism from fellow celebs.
Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez have clapped back at those criticising them for participating in the all-female Blue Origin NS-13 mission.
The star-studded team of women — that also included Katy Perry, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, ex-NASA engineer Aisha Bowe, and film producer Kerianne Flynn — became the first all-women crew to visit space since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova took a solo flight in 1963.
However, celebrities like Amy Schumer, Olivia Wilde, and Olivia Munn appeared less than pleased that the women were participating in the historic space mission and made their opinions known publicly.
King, 70, addressed the criticism hours after landing on the successful 11 minutes in space.
“Anybody that’s criticising it doesn’t really understand what is happening here,” the journalist told People.
“We can all speak to the response we’re getting from young women from young girls about what this represents.”
The fiancée of Blue Origin founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos also responded to some of those criticisms shortly after the launch and said it only got her more “fired up.”
“I get really fired up. I would love to have them come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees that don’t just work here but they put their heart and soul into this vehicle,” Sanchez, 55, told the outlet.
“They love their work and they love the mission and it’s a big deal for them.
“So when we hear comments like that, I just say, trust me. Come with me. I’ll show you what this is about, and it’s, it’s really eye-opening.”
Earlier this month, Munn, 44, called the mission “gluttonous” during an episode of “Today With Jenna and Friends.”
“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. What are you guys gonna do up in space? What are you doing up there?” Munn questioned.
“If you wanna go to space, why do you need to tell us about it, you know? It’s just like, go up there, have a good time, come on down.”
Schumer, 43, also took a dig at the all-female space crew.
“Guys, last second, they added me to space, and I’m going to space,” the comedian joked in an Instagram video on launch day.
“I’m bringing this thing. It has no meaning to me, but it was in my bag, and I was on the Subway, and I got the text, and they were like, ‘Do you want to go to space?’ so I’m going to space.”
Wilde, 44, also took to Instagram to poke fun at Bezos fronting the bill for the mission’s outrageous cost.
“Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess,” she wrote on her story, along with a photo of Perry kissing the ground after returning from space.
Model Emily Ratajkowski also joined in and went on a rant about how the women’s short space voyage and others like it are damaging “Mother Earth.”
“That space mission this morning? That’s end time s–t. Like, this is beyond parody,” Ratajkowski told her TikTok followers in a selfie-style video filmed in the car.
“That you care about Mother Earth and it’s about Mother Earth, and you’re going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that’s singlehandedly destroying the planet?”
PERRY TO WRITE A SONG ABOUT THE JOURNEY
Pop star Katy Perry became the biggest name in an all-woman group to safely blast off into space, roaring into the cosmos on one of billionaire Jeff Bezos’s rockets on Monday, US time.
The singer was lifted more than 100km above the Earth’s surface in a vessel from Blue Origin, the space company owned by the Amazon founder.
#KatyPerry tells Blue Origin about being an astronaut: "I think this experience has shown me you never know how much love is inside of you, like how much love you have to give and how loved you are until the day you launch"ðŸ‘👑💙@katyperrypic.twitter.com/asO5XpkPnv
— World Music Awards (@WORLDMUSICAWARD) April 14, 2025
The flight took off from western Texas shortly after 8.30am local time before landing again some 10 minutes later.
Moments after landing back on earth, Perry kissed the ground and said the overwhelming emotion she felt during the trip was love.
"Take up space!"
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 14, 2025
A daisy for Daisy, a Bahamas patch and a shoutout to Vietnam — here are the ways Blue Origin’s first all-women crew celebrated their moment in space, bringing their loved ones with them from the Earth below. https://t.co/fWre9mBiNZpic.twitter.com/9DTpQPSYSs
“It is the highest high,” Perry said, “and it is surrender to the unknown, trust. … I couldn’t recommend this experience more.”
When asked if she would write a song about the journey, she said, “Oh, for sure, 100per cent”.
Their fully automated craft rose vertically before the crew capsule detached mid-flight, later falling back to the ground slowed by parachutes and a retro rocket.
The mission is the 11th suborbital crewed operation by Blue Origin, which has offered the space tourism experiences for several years.
The company does not publicly communicate the price of trips made possible by its New Shepard rocket.
The flight brought the passengers beyond the Karman line, the internationally recognised boundary of space.
They were expected to have a brief period when the women could unbuckle from their seats and float in zero gravity.
BREAKING: The Blue Origin all-female crew capsule has returned to Earth.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 14, 2025
All of the crew can be heard screaming with excitement before Lauren Sanchez confirms to ground control that they are safe.
🔗 https://t.co/NdoQlD1pEL
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/tBCT4ixCem
OPRAH CRIES AS SHE WATCHES BFF LAUNCH INTO SPACE
Media billionaire Oprah Winfrey, 71, cried when her BFF Gayle King took off into space on the Blue Origin mission alongside five others, including Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos’s fiancee, Lauren Sánchez.
Winfrey was on scene at the launch site in West Texas and told a reporter during the livestream that she wore yellow because King, 70, is “sunshine.”
Noting that the pair have been friends for nearly 50 years, Winfrey said she’s “never been more proud” of the CBS Mornings anchor.
Oprah Winfrey appears to have tears in her eyes as her longtime friend journalist Gayle King is launched into space aboard a Blue Origin rocket. https://t.co/KXvijV8Deapic.twitter.com/p07mNMJbGE
— ABC News (@ABC) April 14, 2025
“This is bigger than going to space for her,” Winfrey stated. “Anytime we’re on a flight, she’s [King] in anybody’s lap if there’s the slightest bit of turbulence, has real, real anxiety flying. And this is overcoming a wall of fear, a barrier.”
“I think it’s gonna be cathartic in so many ways for her,” Winfrey added.
King looked gripped by dread as she boarded the flight, and her frightened facial expressions have gone viral on social media.
Winfrey explained that she wanted King to go on the space journey because “life is about continuing to grow into the best of yourself and the fullest expression of yourself.”
“I think this is one of the most fullest expressions you can possibly have,” Winfrey went on. “I felt deeply that she would regret it, and I didn’t want to hear about it for the next 15 years. ‘I wish I had gone.’ I said there’s only one time that all of the women are going up for the first time. There will be other trips, but there’s only one first time. So to be a pioneer is great.”
“For every woman who is on this flight, it’s about fulfilling something within themselves,” Winfrey noted. “For Gayle, it’s about overcoming this great fear and also stepping into the moment of excitement. It goes beyond this moment of just going into space. I think this will be an everlasting experience.”
King looked nervous as she arrived in West Texas for the flight.
Both King and Perry kissed the ground when they returned to Earth.
“Oh my God, that was amazing,” King said with a large sigh of relief.
King also told a reporter after the flight, “It’s oddly quiet when you get up there. It’s quiet and peaceful. You look down at the planet and you think, ‘That’s where we came from?’ To me it’s such a reminder about how we need to do better, be better.”
JEFF BEZOS TAKES A TUMBLE WHILE GREETING SPACE FLIGHT
Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos face-planted onto the Texas desert as he ran up to greet his fiancee Lauren Sanchez and the all-female crew when they returned to Earth on April 14.
The livestream of the historic launch caught the moment Bezos, 61, fell face first to the ground after stepping into what appeared to be a ditch, as he went around the windows of the capsule where his fiancee was on board.
CREW WORE ‘SEXY’ OUTFITS AND MAKE-UP FOR HISTORIC SPACE FLIGHT
The all-female posed in their space suits in a photo shoot over the weekend ahead of their journey Monday (Tuesday AEST).
Perry, 40, posted the pictures on Instagram and wrote, “Happy International Day of Human Space Flight. Forever in awe of the Universe and it’s alignment.”
In the photos, the women all had their last names written on the front right of their blue jumpsuits. They also had “Blue Origin” emblazoned down the arm.
Sánchez, 55, confirmed to the New York Times that she designed the suits with help from Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, the co-founders of the brand Monse and creative directors of Oscar de la Renta.
“Let’s reimagine the flight suit. Usually, you know, these suits are made for a man. Then they get tailored to fit a woman. I think the suits are elegant but they also bring a little spice to space,” she told the outlet.
“Simplicity was important, and comfort, and fit,” Garcia told the Times of the suits. “But we also wanted something that was a little dangerous, like a motocross outfit. Or a ski suit. Flattering and sexy.”
Sánchez also confirmed that she was wearing Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS underwear on the space flight.
In a recent interview with Elle, the six women also confirmed they were going to space in full makeup.
“Space is going to finally be glam. If I could take glam up with me, I would do that,” said Perry, who also declared, “We are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut.”
The “Roar” singer also shared, “I don’t have any time to be nervous; I ain’t got time to be worried. I’m going to feel something when they go, ‘10, 9, 8, 7,…’ but until then we’ve got stuff to do. We’ve got business to handle.”
King, on the other hand, admitted she was nervous to take off into space.
“I don’t know how to explain being terrified and excited at the same time. It’s like how I felt about to deliver a baby,” the 70-year-old journalist said on “CBS Mornings” in February.
“This was never my dream. It was never my dream,” King added.
“And somebody said, maybe you need to have new dreams, Gayle.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Gayle King, Lauren Sanchez clap back at critics over Blue Origin mission
Join the conversation
World-famous missing dog finally spotted
A family’s miniature dachshund who went missing 16 months ago has captured the world’s attention after being spotted alive and well.
Read more
Australia’s best kept car secret revealed
An iconic car brand just dropped the secret weapon it plans to use to conquer Aussie roads.
Read more