Gayle King disappointed by backlash to Blue Origin flight, accuses critics of sexism

"Have you been?" King scolded critics.

"Please don't call it a 'ride,'" she added, claiming people don't use this term when talking about men going into space. 

"We duplicated the same trajectory that Alan Shepard did back in the day, pretty much. No one called that a 'ride,'" King said. "It was called a flight, it was called a journey."

"There was nothing frivolous about what we did," she added.

"I'm very disappointed and very saddened by it," the CBS host continued. "And I also say this, what it's doing to inspire other women and young girls, please don't ignore that."

She also addressed liberal critics who complained about the environmental impact, saying that Bezos' mission with Blue Origin was to discover if the rocket would be able to take waste from Earth into space to "make our planet cleaner."

"Space is not an either/or. It's a both/and. And because you do something in space doesn't mean you're taking anything away from Earth," King argued. 

Model Emily Ratajkowski was one of several celebrities who bashed the flight on social media, calling it, "beyond parody."

"You say that you care about Mother Earth, and it's about Mother Earth, and you go up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that is single-handedly destroying the planet," Ratajkowski posted to TikTok. "Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what? I'm disgusted."

"We can all speak to the response we're getting from young women, from young girls about what this represents," she added.

Despite her sharp words to critics, King said she feels that for the most part the reaction has been positive.

"This is exciting for so many people," she told Entertainment Tonight.