During a live TV discussion of the groundbreaking all-female Blue Origin space flight, the first black woman to travel to space confronted a CBS News anchor for using the term ‘mankind’.
Dr Mae Jemison corrected CBS’ Vladimir Duthiers after he made the slip while asking about the significance of Monday’s mission.
‘Explain to our audience why even a trip like this one, all the trips that we take into space, benefit mankind?’ Duthiers asked.
‘First and foremost, it is about benefiting humankind, and I will continue to correct the use of terms like mankind, manmade, and manned missions,’ Jemison asserted, leading to a quick apology from the anchor.
‘This is exactly what this mission is about it’s expanding the perception of who does space.’
Jemison made history as the first black woman to go into space on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
More than two decades later, the pioneering all-female Blue Origin flight blasted off at 9.30am ET Monday from west Texas with six women aboard.
The crew on this historic flight included singer Katy Perry, CBS Mornings’ Gayle King, Jeff Bezos’ partner Lauren Sanchez, civil rights advocate Amanda Nguyen, filmmaker Kieranne Flynn, and NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe.
Dr Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, corrected CBS’ Vladimir Duthier (far right) after he used the term ‘mankind’ during a discussion of the historic all-female Blue Origin space flight
Jemison said it was important to use ‘humankind’ as the mission is all about redefining ‘who gets to do space’
The the pioneering all-female Blue Origin flight blasted off at 9.30am ET Monday from west Texas with six women aboard
The women spent 11 minutes in space and got to experience zero gravity.
While they were all smiles inside the capsule, screams were heard as they rocketed to space aboard the New Shepard rocket and again during the ‘soft’ landing back on the ground.
Bezos, however, hit some turbulence while greeting the returning crew as he tripped in a ditch while rushing to open the capsule door.
After their safe return, Perry led the celebration, getting down on the ground and kissing the Texas dirt. Several of her crewmates did the same.
A recovery team was quickly dispatched to the capsule to release Perry and company following their historic space flight.
Sánchez hugged Bezos as she emerged from the capsule and quickly ran to her family.
Perry held up a daisy flower as soon as she stepped out of the capsule and later explained how she was overwhelmed by emotion during the trip.
‘It is the highest high,’ Perry said, ‘and it is surrender to the unknown, trust. I couldn’t recommend this experience more.’
Jemison made history as the first black woman to go into space on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992
Footage from inside the spaceship captured filmmaker Kieranne Flynn staring out the window at a Earth stunningly glowing in the blackness of space
CBS co-host Gayle King was seen kissing the ground at the West Texas landing site following the successful Blue Origin space mission
‘Daisies are common flowers, but they grow through any condition… They are resilient. They are powerful. They are strong,’ the popstar continued.
Perry sang ‘What a Wonderful World’ while in the space capsule.
‘It’s not about singing my songs. It’s about a collective energy in there. It’s about us. It’s about making space for future women and taking up space and belonging,’ she said in a post-flight interview.
‘And it’s about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it. This is all for the benefit of Earth.’
During liftoff, the rocket’s single BE-3PM engine fired and began blasting the crew into space.
Burning a mixture of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, the engine generates around 50,000 kg of force while producing nothing but water vapor.
Within minutes, the rocket hit speeds exceeding 2,000 miles per hour – over twice the speed of sound.
The forces on both the capsule and the crew will be intense as the rocket hits its point of maximum stress, known as Max-Q in aerospace engineering.
Katy Perry and the rest of the crew were turned upside down in zero gravity
The crew, which included Lauren Sánchez (pictured), Jeff Bezos’ fiancee, were seen tumbling around the capsule as they marveled at the moon
According to Blue Origin, Perry and her fellow astronauts experienced three times the force of gravity as the booster accelerates.
The flight was Bezos’ company’s eleventh crewed mission to space and marked the first all-women space flight since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo mission in 1963.
