Gayle King Will Be on All-Female Spaceflight

CBS host Gayle King will be joining singer Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos' fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, on Blue Origin's next space mission. The flight, expected some time this spring, will have an all-female crew for the first time in the history of Bezos' space company. In a news release, Blue Origin said the crew will also include former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, astrophysicist and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn. The company said this will be the first all-female spaceflight since a solo flight in 1963 by Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space.

Blue Origin said Sanchez—a former journalist and pilot—picked the crew for the 10-minute flight to the edge of space, the Guardian reports. King, who recently turned 70, said Thursday that she was "terrified and excited at the same time," CBS News reports. She said she spoke to her children and Oprah Winfrey before agreeing to take part. King said she thought Winfrey would say no, but she said, "I think if you don't do it, when they all come back and you had the opportunity to do it, you will be kicking yourself." This will be the 11th flight in Blue Origin's New Shepard program. Previous crew members have included Bezos and William Shatner. (More Blue Origin stories.)