William Shatner, who is best known for portraying Captain James T. Kirk in the original 1960’s Star Trek series, is headed to space! Shatner’s trip is thanks to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his space tourism company Blue Origin. Shatner will spend approximately 11 minutes in flight on board the Blue Origin rocket, New Shepherd NS-18, on October 12th.
“Yes, it’s true. I’m going to be a ‘rocket man!’” Shatner said on Twitter.
While Captain Kirk explored the final frontier of space (and alien babes) in the futuristic 23rd century, this will be Shatner’s first time getting a glimpse of the real thing. “I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle,” Shatner said.
He may not be the captain this time around, but, at 90 years old, the Canadian actor will be the oldest person to ever go to space. The current record is held by 82 year old aerospace pioneer Wally Funk, who was an aspiring astronaut at a time when women weren’t considered fit for space travel. Funk was on the first Blue Origin flight along with Bezos back in July.
Joining the crew is Blue Origin’s Audrey Powers, the vice president of New Shepherd mission and flight operations. Powers is also a pilot and she currently serves as the chair on the Board of Directors of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
(Blue Origin/Twitter)
“I’m so proud and humbled to fly on behalf of Team Blue, and I’m excited to continue writing Blue’s human spaceflight history,” said Powers. “As an engineer and lawyer with more than two decades of experience in the aerospace industry, I have great confidence in our New Shepherd team and the vehicle we’ve developed.”
The final two crew members are Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries.
Lift-off is scheduled for Tuesday, October 12th at 8:30am CDT from Launch Site One in West Texas.
Viewers will be able to watch live coverage on Blue Origin’s website.
