Gayle King has responded to backlash over her Blue Origin flight on Monday, which saw an all-female crew including the “CBS Mornings” anchor, pop star Katy Perry and journalist and philanthropist Lauren Sánchez take an eight-minute trip into space.

Though its purpose was meant to bring attention to women in aeronautics, the flight via the Jeff Bezos-founded space tech company also drew plenty of criticism — even from other celebrities. In an interview on “Today,” Olivia Munn called it “gluttonous,” adding: “There are so many other things that are so important in the world right now. What are you guys going to do up in space?” Amy Schumer, Olivia Wilde and Emily Ratajkowski have also chimed in.

When asked her response to the backlash in a post-flight interview with Extra, King said: “I think it’s good that we can really address it … because I was one of those people before I went on this flight and before I became educated. ‘Why are we spending so much money on space when there’s so much to do on Earth?’ I was one of those people.”

However, King said her mind changed when she looked at “what Blue Origin does” and “what their intention is,” which she said is “to figure out a way to harness the waste here and put it in space to make the Earth a better place.” King noted that “we use space technology all the time” via GPS and satellites, and that “every time a flight goes up, they get some type of information that can be used for something else.”

She continued: “So I wish people would do more due diligence. And then my question is, have y’all been to space? Go to space or go to Blue Origin and see what they do and then come back and say, ‘This is a terrible thing.’”

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket — which operates on its own without a pilot— successfully traveled over 62 miles into the atmosphere, past the internationally recognized boundary of space. The trip, which is part of Blue Origin’s pioneering space tourism business, promises passengers “several minutes of weightlessness and witnessing life-changing views of Earth.” 

The news anchor acknowledged that taking a flight with Blue Origin is “expensive” — though the exact price of a trip remains unknown — but said “if you get enough people who are interested, it doesn’t have to be that expensive.”

She also took a moment to call out those who have been calling the flight a “ride,” saying: “You never see a man, a male astronaut, who’s going up in space and they say, ‘Oh, he took a ride.’ … It’s always referred to as a flight or a journey, so I feel that’s a little disrespectful to what the mission was and the work that Blue Origin does.”

Despite the criticism, King said she isn’t letting the haters bring her down — even if some of them are her peers in the entertainment industry. “I know there are cranky Yankees, I know there are some haters, but I’m not gonna let people steal my joy and steal the joy of what we did or what we accomplished that day,” she said. “I’m just not going to let it in. I’m not. And these are some of my friends that are throwing shade!”

Watch the full interview with King below.