American TV host Gayle King has revealed what the experience of being a part of the Blue Origin’s New Shepard crew that took off in a rocket to space on Monday morning felt like.
King was among six women including the likes of singer Katy Perry, Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez, Amanda Nguyen, Aisha Bowe and Kerianne Flynn, who enjoyed just a few minutes in space before they returned to Earth as part of a historic 11-minute space tourism flight.
Speaking to CBS, King explained what the entire experience felt like and how much joy being a part of the crew brought her.
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“I still can’t accept that word, but I will say that I can’t even believe what I saw when somebody calls this a ride, this was not a ride. This was a bona fide friggin flight.”
“We were so well prepared, so every noise we heard.. we knew but the flight instructor said that I am her best success story. Why because she’s never had somebody go through the course who’s terrified of flying. Everybody who’s gone through the course is somebody that’s had this as a lifelong dream. They wanted to do it So she said I’m her best success story. I’m so proud of myself right now. I just can’t believe it. I still can’t believe it”, Gayle King added.
The six-woman team flew about 62 miles above the Earth, slightly above the Karman Line designating outer space, which is where they spotted the void of space, the moon, and the blue planet.
The crew only got to experience about four minutes of weightlessness given the short duration of the flight, but say it was a truly wholesome experience.
After their short experience in space, the six-woman crew came back for a soft parachute that landed back in the Texas desert.
They could be heard with joyous screams through the microphones inside the capsule.
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The crowds looking on at the Texas launch site roared with cheers and applause as they welcomed the six women who took to space back to their planet.
Jeff Bezos was reportedly one of the first seen at the scene, as he greeted his fiancée and the rest of the crew in their exit from the capsule.
For Gayle King and her crew of women, it was all smiles and cheers as they exited the vehicle, with Sanchez giving Bezos a hug and Perry giving a quick smooch to the Earth below, showing she was thrilled to be back home.
Nguyen, Flynn and Bowe were all in tears after fulfilling their dreams, with Nguyen explaining that she saw the experience as a chance “to heal” from the sexual assault that upended her STEM studies years ago.
“[I’m] so grateful to everyone who made it a reality,” Nguyen said. “This mum went to space,” Flynn cheered in victory.
Other celebrities that were present at the launch site were Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian, who were there to show support to the six women.
“We’re here to support our girlfriend and our friends, and I never thought that we’d be talking to you from a space launch for sure,” Jenner said.
Despite the short duration of their trip to space, the women of NS31 helped carry out various experiments for the universities and science groups that partnered with the project.
The passengers were also lifting postcards from fans to the final frontier, which will be handed back to them once they get back home.
The six-woman trip to space marks the 11th human flight for the Bezos-owned rocket company’s New Shepard program.
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A New York Post report states that though Blue Origin does not publicly disclose the full price of its spaceflights, a set on their first-ever crewed flight was auctioned off for $28 million.
