Oprah Winfrey got emotional watching her best friend Gayle King blast off into space on Monday, April 14. The 71-year-old was at the launch site in West Texas, near El Paso, as an all-female crew boarded Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket for a brief trip to the edge of space.
King, 70, flew alongside Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez (fiancée of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos), former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics researcher Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
“This will be an everlasting experience,” Oprah said. “Gayle has been there for me for hundreds of events… but none of us will ever forget this day.”
Though nervous before launch, King was elated afterward, saying she was still “floating.”
“I cannot even believe what I saw,” she said, describing space as “quiet” and “peaceful.”
Now, she joked, she might even get her ears pierced: “I was always so scared — but now I can take on anything.”
