Gayle King suited up in anticipation of her space trip with Blue Origin, but critics expressed their ongoing disappointment in her participation.
The CBS Mornings star will be part of the New Origin rocket’s launch in Texas on Monday morning.
The historic all-female crew includes singer Katy Perry, filmmaker Kerianne Flynn, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, and author Lauren Sanchez.
Gayle previously expressed her fear over the mission and excitement about trying something few people experience.
In the past week, she’s been preparing for the trip, including deciding what to pack in a bag and now trying on her space suit.
However, many of Gayle’s fans and critics still believe she shouldn’t go along for the journey.
Gayle says ‘things are getting real!’ in try-on video
In a video posted on Gayle and CBS Mornings’ Instagram pages, Gayle put on the bold blue space suit explicitly designed for Blue Origin NS-31 mission crew members.
As Gayle opens another room’s door to reveal herself in the zipped-up suit, she flips a light switch on and off to simulate a space or alien effect with the lighting.
“Here’s something I never thought I’d see. Me in an astronaut suit,” she says as she leans over before adding, “But I like it.”
She mentions that the “KING” name tag on her chest “makes it official.”
“Gotta hand it to @laurenwsanchez and @monsemaison who designed a suit that looks great on everyone! In the words of @katyperry: Functional, fashion and flare 🚀🚀🚀,” Gayle wrote in her IG caption.
“I love this shade of blue. Who knew?” she said in the video, sharing that she thought yellow was her favorite color.
Someone in the room informed Gayle she could keep that space suit after the trip, and the video cut to Gayle dancing as a group of people sing ABBA’s Dancing Queen.
The group around her included people holding cameras and microphones, who applauded and cheered for her before the video clip ended.
Blue Origin also shared a photo of all of the NS-31 crew members in West Texas in their space suits ahead of Monday morning’s launch.
Critics continue to express disappointment over Gayle’s participation in ‘stunt’
In the Instagram comments section, many individuals shared feedback about the trip. While some commenters celebrated Gayle before the launch, others criticized the mission.
Commenters wrote, “This is so terribly disappointing,” and “so disappointed in this.”
“We can only hope you and CBS get what was negotiated. With all that is happening in this country is this the focus?” a commenter asked.
Another individual wrote, “The money spent on this ‘stunt’ could help so many disadvantaged people, just sad.”
One person asked about the mission’s “objective” and “What scientific or peaceful mission will it accomplish?”
“How many thousands of gas is being burned? All this for fun?” the commenter asked.
The announcement of the Blue Origin New Shepard’s mission with a historic all-female crew received mixed reactions.
Since then, reactions have continued to be a mix of supportive and frustrated comments. Several other notable TV personalities also called out the trip.
Several weeks ago, The View’s Joy Behar called out Gayle during a podcast and wondered why the CBS Mornings star and others were taking the space trip.
While co-hosting Today with Jenna & Friends, Olivia Munn blasted the trip and referred to it as “gluttonous” while discussing the Blue Origin mission.