“Ridiculous”: Gayle King Labeled “Tone Deaf” For Comparing Herself With Astronaut Alan Shepard

Gayle King continues to catch flak online as she defends her trip to space with an all-female crew.

The TV host icon compared the Blue Origin flight to a pioneering 1961 space mission, in which U.S. Navy test pilot Alan Shepard became the first American and the second man in space.

Critics found the comparison “tone deaf” and said, “I think she brought some space back between her ears.”

Gayle King defended her Blue Origin NS-31 spaceflight by comparing it to Alan Shepard‘s 1961 space mission

Image credits: Gayle King / Facebook

Gayle said on CBS Mornings Tuesday, April 15, that she was “very disappointed and very saddened” by the criticism she and her famous friends Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, and others, received for their 11-minute, space-tourism flight.

“Please don’t call it a ‘ride,’” she said, noting that people don’t use this term while referring to space flights taken by men.

Image credits: Gayle King / Facebook

“We duplicated the same trajectory that Alan Shepard did back in the day, pretty much. No one called that a ‘ride,’” she said. “It was called a flight, it was called a journey.”

“There was nothing frivolous about what we did,” added the CBS host.

“I’m very disappointed and very saddened” by the criticism, the CBS host said

Image credits: Entertainment Tonight / YouTube

The six women part of Blue Origin’s space flight traveled aboard the New Shepard capsule, named after the history-making Alan Shepard himself.

Interestingly, his daughter, Laura Shepard Churchley—who was a schoolgirl when her father took the suborbital NASA flight at the beginning of the Space Age—was one of six passengers who took Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft to space in 2021.

U.S. Navy test pilot Alan Shepard became the first American and the second man in space on May 5, 1961

Image credits: Space Frontiers / Getty Images

In her clap back, Gayle also addressed concerns about the environmental impact of the space flights conducted by Blue Origin—a Jeff Bezos founded company that has made 11 space trips and carried 58 people to space so far.

“Because you do something in space doesn’t mean you’re taking anything away from Earth,” Gayle said.

Image credits: Entertainment Tonight / YouTube

“What Blue Origin wants to do is take the waste here and figure out a way to put it in space to make our planet cleaner,” she said, noting that Amazon founder Jeff has “so many ideas.”

“The people that are working there are really devoted and dedicated to making our planet a better place,” she added. “That’s number one.”

Gayle caught plenty of online flak for her statements

Image credits: Entertainment Tonight / YouTube

Online reactions to Gayle’s comments were merciless, with one saying, “This clip is pure nuts.”

“She is not an astronaut,” one straightforwardly declared.

“She just keeps digging and making it worse,” one said, while another wrote, “Respectfully take a seat, Miss King. You took an eleven minute pointless joy ride, for publicity.”

Image credits: Entertainment Tonight / YouTube

“Is she implying Alan Shepard screamed as if he was a teenage girl at a Beatle Concert once the drag chute deployed,” one said.

“The most ridiculous part is they felt this was ground breaking,” said another. “We have actual female astronauts to admire.”

“Say it with me, ‘unless you have a job on the ship, you’re cargo and not an astronaut,’” a social media user said

Image credits: Entertainment Tonight / YouTube

Others scoffed at the comparison with the 1961 space mission with their own hilarious comparisons.

“I starred in a stage production of My Fair Lady, so that makes me Julie Andrews!!” one said. Another worte, “I flew on an airplane…I am as brave as Orville Wright.”

Image credits: Entertainment Tonight / YouTube

“I played 2nd base in Little League so I am basically Joe Morgan,” said another.

“She floated for 10 minutes, congratulations you’re a balloon,” read another sarcastic comment.

Today, absolutely anyone (with enough money) can reserve a spot on Blue Origin’s flight to space

Today, absolutely anyone can reserve a seat on a Blue Origin flight, as long as they are above 18 years old.

While the exact cost of a ticket is not clear, the company’s website says Blue Origin will collect a $150,000 fully refundable deposit to begin the process of reserving a flight.

As for the recent Blue Origin NS-31 that took place on April 14, Blue Origin spokesperson Bill Kircos revealed that some passengers on the flight flew free of charge but others paid.

“Can Gayle just retire and go away,” one netizen harshly said

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