Hollywood captain Kirk, 90-year-old William Shatner blasted into space Wednesday at the convergence of science fiction and science reality, reaching the final frontier aboard a ship built by Jeff Bezos Blue Origin Company.
The Star Trek hero became the oldest person to ride a rocket, surpassing the previous record set eight years earlier by a similar passenger on the Bezos spacecraft in July.
Dressed in a royal blue flight suit, Shatner was joined by three fellow passengers, four to five decades aboard, aboard the small, fully automated capsule for an up-and-down flight lasting only 10 minutes or more. Flying from far west Texas.
The spacecraft was set to an altitude of 66 miles (106 kilometers) at the edge of space, after which the capsule was set to parachute back to the desert floor.
Starship Enterprise veteran Captain James T. Sci-fi fans rejoiced at the opportunity to see the man known as Kirk go where no American TV star had gone before.
Shatner said before the countdown that he planned to spend his nearly three minutes of weightlessness gazing at Earth, his nose pressed against the capsule’s windows.
The only thing I don’t want to see is a little gremlin staring back at me, he joked, referring to the plot of his 1963 Twilight Zone episode titled Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.
Bezos is a huge Star Trek fan, the Amazon founder having made a cameo as an alien in one of the later Star Trek movies and Shatner frees up as his invited guest.
Given its inherent appeal to baby boomers, celebrity watchers and space enthusiasts, Blastoff brought invaluable star power to the Bezos spaceship company. Shatner starred in the TV original Star Trek from 1966 to 1969, When America Was Running to the Moon, and appeared in a series of Star Trek films.
Bezos himself carried all four to the pad, accompanied them to an above-ground platform, and closed the hatch after boarding a 60-foot rocket. The capsule, New Shepard, was named after Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space.
Watching Captain James Tiberius Kirk go into space is a pinch moment for all of us, Blue Origin launch commentator Jackie Cortes said ahead of liftoff. She said that she, like many others, was attracted to the space business from shows like Star Trek.
The flight comes as the space tourism industry finally takes off, with passengers rejoicing aboard ships built and operated by some of the world’s wealthiest men.
Virgin Galactics’ Richard Branson led the way in July aboard his own rocket ship into space, followed by Bezos’ first flight with a crew on Blue Origin nine days later. Elon Musk SpaceX made his first private trip in mid-September, although without Musk.
Last week, the Russians launched an actor and a film director to the International Space Station for a film-making project.
It was just in the beginning, but how miraculous is that beginning. How extraordinary it is to be part of that debut, Shatner said in a Blue Origin video posted on the eve of his flight.
Shatner worked with Audrey Powers, a Blue Origin vice president and former space station flight controller for NASA, and two paying clients: Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer who co-founded a satellite company, and a Glen de Vries of 3D Software Co. Blue Origin would not disclose the price of their tickets.
Shatner milked his upcoming flight for laughs at New York Comic Con last week. The actor said that Blue Origin informed him that he would be the oldest person in space.
I don’t want to be the oldest person in space. I’m Killer Captain Kirk! They said. Then he stammered in a fake-panic voice: Captain Kirk, going where no man is… What am I going to? Where am I going?
He confessed: I’m Captain Kirk and I’m scared.
Jokes aside, Blue Origin said that Shatner and the rest of the crew met all medical and physical requirements, including the ability to climb up and down multiple flights of stairs at the launch tower. As the capsule returns to Earth, the passengers are subjected to a force of about 6 Gs, or six times Earth’s gravity.
Shooting in space is the worst thing I think I’ve ever seen, said Joseph Barra, a bartender from Los Angeles helping round out the Blue Origin launch week festivities. William Shatner is setting the standard for what a 90-year-old can do.
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