Gayle King’s still riding high after that nerve-wracking Blue Origin mission -- but she’s bringing it back down to Earth just a bit to clap back at the haters saying the money could be spent elsewhere.
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00:00A whole lot of conversation over a relatively brief rocket ride.
00:05Relatively. It's four minutes.
00:07Well, the whole trip is more than four minutes.
00:09They're, you know, in zero gravity for four minutes.
00:12You know, look, there was a lot of celebration of this.
00:15And believe me, I get it, the all-female crew.
00:18And I think it is amazing, the view.
00:21And say what you want, if I had the opportunity and the money to do it,
00:25I would 1,000% do this.
00:27It is tremendous.
00:28So I get why they were all, all of the women aboard were so excited when they came back.
00:33But while a lot of people were watching at it marveling,
00:35there were some people who felt like this is, well, to borrow Emily Ratajkowski's word, disgusting.
00:41This is what she thought when she saw them arrive back on Earth and talk about
00:46what an amazing experience it was to be above the Earth and see it.
00:52She was not impressed by their words.
00:54Here's what she had to say.
00:54That space mission this morning, that's entire s**t.
00:58Like, this is beyond parody.
01:00Saying that you care about Mother Earth and it's about Mother Earth and you're going up in a spaceship
01:04that is built and paid for by a company that's single-handedly destroying the planet.
01:10Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space.
01:16For what?
01:17For what?
01:17What was the marketing there?
01:18And then to try to make it, like, I'm disgusted.
01:21Literally, I'm disgusted.
01:22First of all, this is sort of like the new Disneyland.
01:25And they're going to make a commercial...
01:27It's space tourism.
01:28They're going to make a commercial venture out of this eventually where it's going to become somewhat affordable.
01:32People are going to be able to go up...
01:33Probably not affordable, but...
01:34It's sort of like everything.
01:36I mean, computers were out of reach and then they weren't.
01:38Big screen TVs were out of reach and then they weren't.
01:41I can get a big screen TV for $150.
01:43You're not going to be able to fly to space for even $500.
01:46I mean, who knows what's going to happen in the future.
01:49But Gayle King clapped back on this.
01:51Yeah, and she thinks that this is pure misogyny, that they're coming after their crew in particular.
01:57I was looking at the future of being able to produce crops that can withstand harsh environments so we can look at food security here on Earth.
02:05And simultaneously, we also were able to certify that device so more people could do research on New Shepard.
02:12So what do you think when people say, oh, it's frivolous?
02:14Number one, they call it a ride, which I find very irritating because they never say men went for a ride.
02:19I think the message that it sends is very, very powerful.
02:22And the people that say that, by the way, weren't there.
02:24And 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.
02:35And I don't work for Blue Origin.
02:37But I was one of these people that go, I don't know why we've got to do this until you educate yourself.
02:42I've got to say one thing about it because I love Gayle.
02:44The thing she said about a ride, I think you said that this morning in the morning meeting, right?
02:48That it's like a Disney ride.
02:49Well, right.
02:50But I will say this because I was a child of the space program and I was mesmerized by it.
02:58You were not part of the space program.
02:59No, but I watched it as a child.
03:01It was the most spectacular thing in my childhood to see this.
03:05And, you know, there was criticism way back then in the Mercury program.
03:10Why are we doing this?
03:11What's the point?
03:11Even going to the moon, people were saying it.
03:13So when Gayle says she's intimating that this is more of a female thing, I don't think so.
03:19I think it's more of a space thing that there has been that criticism.
03:22And I've heard this criticism.
03:23Blue Origin has done these flights before.
03:25And I've heard this.
03:26People said it when Michael Strahan went up.
03:28People said it when William Shatner went up.
03:30Like, what's the point of this?
03:31Not to this extent, you guys.
03:33It definitely feels like this specific launch was targeted because it was promoted as, like, all women.
03:40And then all of a sudden, people were like, oh, God, all they care about are their outfits and their hair.
03:46And, you know, then it all of a sudden became like, okay, this is no longer about the research.
03:51And it is a very bland shot.
03:51It's about, like, looking cute and getting good, like, content.
03:55But it's not about that.
03:56And you heard Aisha Bowe, who was part of the crew and is an actual engineer.
04:02Look, I don't know.
04:03I didn't know anything about these studies that they did.
04:06I just don't know how much they can study.
04:07Can we be honest?
04:08In a 10-minute trip.
04:09Let's just be honest for a second.
04:10You got Gayle King.
04:12You got Lauren Sanchez.
04:13You got Katy Perry.
04:15It's three out of the six are very, very famous.
04:18You got Oprah Winfrey and Kris Jenner watching this.
04:22So it became a celebrity thing more so than any of the other flights.
04:28Period.
04:28Because they had more celebrities on it.
04:30Usually they have one celebrity on.
04:32And it opens that door of the criticism that's been going on for decades now.
04:38But I don't think it's a woman thing.
04:40I think the problem that – and Gayle should have reworded this part differently.
04:45But, like, we keep – she keeps trying to defend it by saying, like, oh, there's so much great research.
04:49You've got to educate yourself.
04:51I think they need to lean into, like, this is the new skydiving.
04:54Like, this is just the new thing you would do for, like, adrenaline junkies.
04:58I think if we leaned more into that, it would be like, okay, you're looking at it with different eyes.
05:03But because they're trying to make it seem like this is so groundbreaking for women.
05:08And I think that's where we're losing people on this.