News anchor forced to apologise as astronaut corrects him after he said ‘mankind’ during interview

A news anchor was left red-faced after an astronaut corrected him for using the term 'mankind' during an interview.

Astronaut Mae Jemison, who was the first Black woman to ever venture into space, was chatting to journalist Vladimir Duthiers where they were discussing Blue Origin's all-female voyage this week.

On Monday (14 April), Katy Perry - and five other women - were launched into space on Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space tourism rocket.

The all-female crew made the journey on the New Shepard rocket, which is a fully autonomous vehicle, with Blue Origin saying prior to take off: "Every person on board is a crew member - there are no pilots."

Appearing on CBS Mornings to discuss the trip, Duthiers asked Jemison: “Explain to our audience why even a trip like this one, all the trips that we take into space, benefit mankind?”

Jemison quickly stepped in to correct Duthiers, responding: “So it benefits humankind and I’m gonna keep correcting.

“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.”

Seemingly horrified by the error, Duthiers quickly added: “Humankind, I’m sorry, I’m sorry."

Jemison added: “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."

Jemison corrected Duthiers over the error (CBS Mornings)

On Monday, Perry, along with journalist and Jeff Bezos' fiancée Lauren Sánchez, NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen, CBS Mornings host Gayle King and film producer Kerianne Flynn, took off on the New Shepard rocket.

Of course, all space travel comes with risk, and Perry spoke about this prior to making her decision.

Speaking on her Instagram Story - just hours head of the launch - the 'Firework' singer told listeners: "You know that I'm always looking for little confirmations from the heavens, from my guides, from the angels, from my higher self.

"You know when I ask for it and I am open to it, it's pretty loud."

Katy Perry was also on-board the all-female spaceflight (Sky News)

Perry then revealed that, while researching the trip, she came across her supposed signal.

"So when I was invited to come on this voyage, I looked up at the capsule, and the capsule, on the very front of it, is the outline in the shape of a feather," the star - who was famously born into a religious family - explained.

"And when I saw that it was like a total confirmation, because my mom has always called me Feather."