An emotional Oprah Winfrey, with tears in her eyes, watched from the Blue Origin Launch Site One in West Texas as her old friend Gayle King blasted off at 9:30 a.m. ET as part the rocket’s first all-women crew.
King, singer Katy Perry, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez took off and then, 10 minutes later, safely returned to earth.
King, who was said to be very nervous before stepping into the rocket, emerged from the landing capsule with a two-handed wave before dropping to her knees and kissing the earth. The event was covered live coast-to-coast on CBS Mornings.
King and her fellow crew members launched their journey 62 miles above Earth’s surface to the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. The quick trip was the 11th human flight of Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard program.
Prior to lift off, King told CBS Mornings, “This is such an unlikely place for me to be, so I’ve just in my mind said, ‘OK.’ I feel well prepared for this moment after the training we had…but it still hasn’t eased the fear that I have.”
The capsule containing the women returned safely to earth, where it was greeted by invited onlookers including Winfrey.
In addition to King and Perry, the crew included journalist and philanthropist Lauren Sánchez, film producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen. Bowe is the first Bahamian and Nguyen the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman in space.
King & Crew join 52 prior passengers of the New Shepard program.
