Captain Kirk in Real Space: 90-Year-Old Actor Shatner Becomes Oldest Person in Orbit

The flight went successfully, and Captain Kirk is delighted!

Hollywood actor William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in the legendary series Star Trek, has become the oldest person to have been to space. 

The 90-year-old actor became one of four crew members aboard the suborbital New Shepard spacecraft of Blue Origin, the company of businessman Jeff Bezos. On October 13, the flight launched from a spaceport in Texas. 

The flight lasted 10 minutes, and the crew successfully returned to Earth at 10:00 local time. The spacecraft rose to an altitude of more than 100 km, which is considered the lower boundary of space. For a short time, the crew was weightless and watched the outline of Earth through the large windows of the capsule. 

William Shatner
actor

Every person in the world should do this. It is incredible. What I have been given is the deepest experience. I am overwhelmed with emotion. I hope this feeling stays with me, I don't want to lose it. 

Before this flight, 82-year-old American aviator Wally Funk was considered the oldest astronaut in history, although NASA does not officially count space tourists who traveled on the spacecraft of Bezos's company and of another businessman, Richard Branson, as astronauts. 

Mission control said the mission went according to plan, the capsule carrying the astronauts landed normally in Texas, and all participants felt fine. 

Before the flight, Shatner said: “There is some mysterious force in going into space, getting closer to the stars and experiencing weightlessness. I will enjoy the view of space. I want to look at the globe and enjoy its beauty and power.” 

Besides the actor, three other people went to space: Blue Origin Vice President Audrey Powers, Planet co-founder Chris Boshuizen, and Glen de Vries, manager of the French medical software company Dassault Systèmes.

The space tourists trained for only a few days, since during the fully automated flight they did not need to control the spacecraft. Company representatives say the crew must know what to do if unforeseen circumstances arise. 

Passengers were also prepared for the shaking and noise typical of such a flight so that they would not worry too much about it. 

Nicholas Patrick
director of the flight control center at Blue Origin 

The third thing we teach the crew during training is the rules of behavior in zero gravity: how to move around the cabin without bumping into or pushing each other, and how to use the handrails. What will happen during the flight and how to react to it. 

William Shatner became the first from Star Trek to manage to go to real space, although some NASA astronauts had made this journey in reverse order before. 

For example, astronaut Mae Jemison appeared in one episode of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation. In addition, the series creator Gene Roddenberry and actor James Doohan made a space journey, though only after their deaths. Their ashes were sent into space according to their wills. 

Jeff Bezos invites some people to fly on New Shepard for free, but a significant part of the seats are sold for large sums. However, unlike Richard Branson, the founder of Amazon does not disclose the cost of space tickets.