The first black woman to ever venture into space chided a CBS anchor after the journalist used the term “mankind” in an interview with her leading up to Blue Origin’s historic all-female flight Monday morning.
Trailblazing astronaut Mae Jemison scolded anchor Vladimir Duthiers as she insisted on the importance of the star-studded flight crew that included singer Katy Perry, “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King and Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez.
“Explain to our audience why even a trip like this one, all the trips that we take into space, benefit mankind?” Duthiers asked Jemison on “CBS Mornings.”
Jemison, who became the first black woman to go into space on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992, quickly corrected the CBS anchor.
“So it benefits humankind and I’m gonna keep correcting,” she said as Duthiers issued a mea culpa.
“And the mankind and the man-made and the manned missions, because this is exactly what this mission is about — is expanding the perspective of who does space.”
“Humankind, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Duthiers quickly intercepted.
Jemison then shared her answer.
“Why is space important? When you just look at it, when you go up, you get a perspective on this world that you can’t get from looking down on the ground,” she said.
Civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, rocket scientist Aisha Bowe and film producer Kerianne Flynn were also part of the historic takeoff in which the women flew 62 miles above Earth.
The Blue Origin mission was the 11th human flight for the Bezos-owned rocket company and the first all-women space trip since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo adventure in 1963.
