Gayle King is getting ready for an extraordinary adventure—space travel—but admits she hasn’t quite figured out her packing situation yet. “I’m winging it,” King, 70, told Us Weekly at the glamorous 11th Breakthrough Prize ceremony held on Saturday, April 5. “I’m getting ready. I’m now putting my bag together. Like, what do you put in the bag to go to space, right?”
Fortunately, King has a delightful helper—her grandson Lucas. “So I’m staying with my daughter,” King shared, smiling warmly. “I just asked my favorite grandson, ‘Could you pick out your favorite animal, one of your favorite stuffed animals, that could go with me to space and keep ‘Gyla’ company?’ So he’s looking.”
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Although King’s packing list remains uncertain, excitement for the trip is undeniably sky-high. She will be part of Blue Origin’s historic upcoming NS-31 mission, marking the first time the Jeff Bezos-owned space exploration company sends an all-women crew into space.
“Well, it’s the first all-women crew,” King noted. “I imagine that we’ll comb our hair and put on lipstick.” Despite the humor, King openly admits her nerves about the impending launch. “On a scale of 1-10, it’s a 12,” she confessed about her anxiety ahead of the April 14 liftoff.
King will be joined on this groundbreaking mission by a remarkable crew, including pop sensation Katy Perry, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics researcher and civil rights advocate Amanda Nguyen, filmmaker Kerianne Flynn, and journalist and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez.
The historic flight, scheduled to launch from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas, will take the crew approximately 65 miles above Earth, crossing the internationally recognized boundary of space known as the Kármán line. Though the journey will not reach orbital space, the suborbital trip will provide passengers with an extraordinary view of Earth and a brief experience of weightlessness during the 11-minute mission.
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Ahead of the flight, King and her fellow travelers will complete final training at Blue Origin’s facilities in Van Horn, Texas. Meanwhile, King is playfully relying on her grandson’s choice of stuffed animal for comfort and companionship during the journey. If anyone can make space travel both approachable and effortlessly chic, it’s Gayle King, who continues to share relatable moments—even when preparing to rocket beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
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