'Star Trek' fame William Shatner to fly into space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Rocket

Star War's alum William Shatner is all set to join the crew of Blue Origin’s next space flight on October 12. At the age of 90, Shatner will become the oldest person to fly into space. Amazon founder and multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos's aerospace company Blue Origin confirmed on Monday that Shatner will be joining three others, two of them paying customers, aboard a Blue Origin capsule. Bezos himself had launched into orbit on one of the company’s rockets earlier this year in July.

William Shatner joins the crew of Blue Origin's next space flight

Jeff Bezos’ space travel company, Blue Origin, announced on Monday that William Shatner will blast off to space from West Texas on October 12. At the age of 90, Shatner will become the oldest person in space. He’ll join three other crew members and two of them are paying customers. It will be the company’s second launch with a crew. Shatner in a statement given to AP said, "I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle." At the age of 90, the actor, known for his role a Captain Kirk will be the oldest person to fly off into space. Shatner also took to his Twitter and expressed his excitement.

Shatner will be joining crew members Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of Earth observation company Planet Labs and Glen de Vries vice-chairperson for life sciences and healthcare at French software company Dassault Systèmes and co-founder of Medidata. The up-and-down space hop will last 10 minutes and reach no higher than about 66 miles (106 kilometres).

More about William Shatner

William Shatner has had a long, prolific career of over 60 plus years and has received numerous accolades for his performances. The veteran actor also has a proficient career in the music industry with 8 solo albums under his belt. After his stint on Star Trek, Shatner got a lead role in a TV series as the titular police officer in T. J. Hooker, which ran from 1982 to 1986. From 2004 until 2008, he played the role of attorney Denny Crane both in the final season of the legal drama The Practice and in its spinoff series Boston Legal, the role later went on to earn Shatner two Emmy Awards.

Image: AP