Blue Origin delays William Shatner's space flight to Oct 13 as bad weather plays villain

Blue Origin’s much-awaited upcoming manned mission NS-18 has been postponed from October 12 to October 13 due to unfavourable weather conditions, multiple sources confirmed. Under the mission, the company’s New Shepard rocket is planned to carry Star Trek actor William Shatner along with three other civilians. Interestingly, Shatner is set to become the oldest person to travel to space at the age of 90 years. 

Crew awaits perfect weather

In a tweet put out by Blue Origin’s official Twitter handle, the company informed, “Due to forecasted winds in West Texas we are pushing #NS18 launch target to Wednesday, October 13. Liftoff is targeted for 8:30 am CDT / 13:30 UTC”. 

The take-off will take place from Blue Origin's West Texas site, near the town of Van Horn and interested viewers can watch the launch by logging onto the company’s official website. Besides, the viewers can also keep up with the updates on the company's official Twitter handle. The lift-off will take place at 7:00 pm and the broadcast is likely to commence an hour earlier. 

William Shatner’s quest to space

Star Trek fame William Shatner will script history by becoming the world’s oldest person to travel to space once the mission is successful. Talking to the Associated Press, he had said, "I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle." Moreover, he also shared a post on Twitter expressing his excitement. However, he recently revealed that he is also "terrified" ahead of the upcoming launch. 

Moreover, Shatner will be accompanied in his first-ever suborbital flight by Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice-president of mission and flight operations, Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of Earth observation company Planet Labs and  Glen de Vries, vice chair at French software company Dassault Systèmes.

Image: Twitter/@BlueOrigin