Star Trek's 'Captain Kirk' William Shatner boldly goes where no 90-year-old has gone before: Space, the final frontier

Hollywood’s Captain Kirk, 90-year-old William Shatner, blasted into space Wednesday in a convergence of science fiction and science reality, reaching final frontier aboard a ship built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company.

“Star Trek” actor and three fellow passengers hurtled to an altitude of 66.5 miles (107 kilometers) over West Texas desert in fully automated capsule, n safely parachuted back to Earth in a flight that lasted just over 10 minutes.

“What you have given me is most profound experience," an exhilarated Shatner told Bezos after climbing out of hatch, words spilling from him in a soliloquy almost as long as flight. “I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it.”

William Shatner became oldest person in space

He said that going from blue sky to utter blackness of space was a moving experience: "In an instant you go, `Whoa, that’s death.' That’s what I saw.”

Shatner became oldest person in space, eclipsing previous record — set by a passenger on a similar jaunt on a Bezos spaceship in July — by eight years. flight included about three minutes of weightlessness and a view of curvature of Earth.

Image: AP Photo/LM Otero

Sci-fi fans reveled in opportunity to see man best known as stalwart commander of starship Enterprise boldly go where no star of American TV has gone before.

“This is a pinch-me moment for all of us to see Capt. James Tiberius Kirk go to space,” Blue Origin launch commentator Jacki Cortese said before liftoff. She said she, like so many ors, was drawn to space business by shows like “Star Trek.”
NASA sent best wishes ahe of flight, tweeting: "You are, and always shall be, our friend.”

flight brought priceless star power to Bezos’ space-tourism business, given its built-in appeal to baby boomers, celebrity watchers and space enthusiasts. Shatner starred in TV’s original “Star Trek” from 1966 to 1969, back when U.S. was racing for moon, and went on to appear in a string of “Star Trek” movies.

Bezos is a huge “Star Trek” fan — Amazon founder h a cameo as an alien in one of later “Star Trek” movies — and Shatner rode free as his invited guest.

As a favour to Bezos, Shatner took up into space some “Star Trek” tricorders and communicators — sort of iPhones of future — that Bezos me when he was a 9-year-old Trekkie. Bezos said his mor h saved m for 48 years.
Bezos himself drove four crew members to launch p, accompanied m to platform high above ground and cranked hatch shut after y climbed aboard 60-foot rocket. He was re to greet m when capsule floated back to Earth under its brilliant blue-and-red parachutes.

Image: AP Photo/LM Otero

'Welcome to Earth!': Jeff Bezos welcomes astronauts to Earth

“Hello, astronauts. Welcome to Earth!" a jubilant Bezos said as he opened hatch of New Shepard capsule, named for first American in space, Alan Shepard. Shatner said he was struck by vulnerability of Earth and relative sliver of its atmosphere.

“Everybody in world needs to do this. Everybody in world needs to see," he said. “To see blue color whip by and now you’re staring into blackness, that’s thing. covering of blue, this sheath, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around, we say, ‘Oh, that’s blue sky.’ And n suddenly you shoot through it all, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness.”

actor said return to Earth was more jolting than his training led him to expect and me him wonder wher he was going to make it home alive.

“Everything is much more powerful," he said. “Bang, this thing hits. That wasn’t anything like simulator. ... Am I going to be able to survive G-forces? Am I going to be able to survive it?”

Passengers are subjected to nearly 6 G’s, or six times force of Earth’s gravity, as capsule descends. Blue Origin said Shatner and rest of crew met all medical and physical requirements, including ability to hustle up and down several flights of steps at launch tower. 

Shatner going into space is “ most bass thing I think I’ve ever seen,” said Joseph Barra, a bartender who helped cater launch week festivities. “William Shatner is setting bar for what a 90-year-old man can do.”
flight comes as space tourism industry finally takes off, with passengers joyriding aboard ships built and operated by some of richest men in world.

Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson led way by flying into space in his own rocket ship in July, followed by Bezos nine days later on Blue Origin’s first flight with a crew. Elon Musk’s SpaceX me its first private voyage in mid-September, though without Musk aboard.

Last week, Russians launched an actor and a film director to International Space Station for a movie-making project.
Blue Origin said it plans one more passenger flight this year and several more in 2022. Sounding like humane and idealistic Captain Kirk himself, company said its goal is to “democratize space.”

Shatner strapped in alongside Audrey Powers, a Blue Origin vice president and former space station flight controller for NASA, and two paying customers: Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer, and Glen de Vries of a 3D software company. Blue Origin would not divulge cost of ir tickets. flight brought to 597 number of humans who have flown in space.