Star Trek's William Shatner says: 'Beam me up, Bezos'
October 4, 2021
Blue Origin, Amazon's space flight enterprise, confirmed rumors on Monday that actor William Shatner will be a passenger on one of its upcoming flights into the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere.
The 90-year-old actor, most famous as Star Trek's original Captain Kirk, will then become the oldest person ever in space.
"I'm taking the opportunity to see [space] for myself. What a miracle," Shatner said in a statement.
News that Shatner would likely fly on the Amazon CEO's space tourism vehicle had already circulated last week, but without confirmation, prompting Shatner to say on Twitter on Monday: "So now I can say something. Yes, it's true; I'm going to be a 'rocket man!'"
What happens on the flight?
The blastoff in west Texas is scheduled for October 12. At only 10 minutes, the flight will be significantly shorter than Captain Kirk's five-year mission from the United Federation of Planets to "boldly go where no man has gone before."
Shatner and the other three passengers will fly to just about the Karman Line, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) above the earth.
Accompanying him on the journey will be Audrey Powers, the company's vice president of mission and flight operations; Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Planet Labs; and Glen de Vries, a co-founder of clinical research platform Medidata Solutions, on the suborbital flight.
The flight will be Blue Origin's second passenger flight after founder Jeff Bezos escorted a small group into space in July.
es/msh (AP, AFP)