Lauren Sanchez and Gayle King defend 11-minute space flight amid criticism: 'That's a little disrespectful'

Lauren Sanchez and Gayle King were part of Blue Origin’s first all-women space mission. The 11-minute journey caused mixed reactions, with many describing it as historic, while others were not so quick to celebrate. Following the online criticism, the author and the television personality shared their thoughts. 

“I think it’s good that we can really address it,” Gayle told Extra, reflecting on the backlash. “I really do love it because I was one of those people before I went on this flight and before I became educated on space: ‘Why are we spending so much money in space when there’s so much to do here on Earth?’”

“Once I learned more about what Blue Origin does… their intentions 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, “it started to make a lot more sense.”

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Lauren, who is preparing for her wedding with Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos this summer, revealed that the criticism had her "really fired up," and agreed with some of the things Gayle said during her interview with People. 

"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.' '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," she said

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"They love their work and they love the mission and it's a big deal for them," Lauren added. Meanwhile, Gayle said that she has a "hard time" calling herself "an astronaut" and said that the crew was not just going for "a ride."

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“You never see a male astronaut who’s going up in space, and they say, ‘Oh, he took a ride.’ We actually duplicated the route that Alan Shepard did,” she said. “No one said, ‘He took that 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.”

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“I wish people would do more due diligence,” she 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 how they do, and then come back and say, ‘This is a terrible thing' Is it expensive? Yes. But 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.”