Ninety-year-old William Shatner, who gained fame portraying Captain Kirk on the original"Star Trek," just hitched a ride aboard a suborbital spacecraft that grazed the edge of outer space before parachuting to a landing, making Shatner the oldest person ever to travel to space.
Shatner took off aboard a New Shepard spacecraft — the one developed by Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, and the same vehicle that took Bezos himself to space this summer — just before 10:50 a.m. ET from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site. Bezos, a lifelong"Star Trek" fan, flew Shatner as a comped guest. With him were three crewmates: Chris Boshuizen, a co-founder of satellite company Planet Labs, and software executive Glen de Vries, who are both paying customers, and Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations.
The trip took just 10 minutes from takeoff to landing. The crew experienced about three minutes of weightlessness at the top of their flight path before their capsule deployed parachutes to slow their descent and touched back down near their Texas launch site. Shanter's new record as the oldest person to fly to space one-ups the record set just three months ago by 82-year-old Wally Funk, who was previously denied the opportunity to fly by NASA in the 1960s before she joined Bezos on his July flight.
…to boldly go where no nonagenarian has gone before!
classic ‘78 breaking stereotypes haha
These joy rides are begging for something to go wrong. I hope it doesn't happen, but a lot of very smart people were involved with the Mercury program that killed three REAL astronauts, and with the Challenger and Columbia disasters.
Where's the intense heat on re-entry into earth's atmosphere?
Who cares!! Disney Land for billionaires who don’t pay their fair share of taxes yet cable outlets like CNN give Bezos hours and hours of free advertising time to sell his Space mountain ride.
FlatJannrickles 😀🤩
As Walt Whitman famously wrote, “O Captain! My Captain!” Terrific moment William. Art and nature in perfect harmony
Stop claiming to be liberal then supporting a man 'Shatner' who is incredibly ableist towards us autistic's. If you care about us at all you will stop supporting him
Too cool.
And back on earth a youngish senior cannot even open an “eco-friendly bottle” of Snapple Our priorities are so friggin’ screwed up it is unbelievable. Glad he made it back in one piece. But what has Bezos done for the world lately?
I just can’t help feeling that this is nothing more than an expensive amusement park ride,thrilling I’m sure but nothing else WilliamShatner SpaceX
Lost opportunity if no one shouted 'captain on the bridge' while in space.
I feel like you can tell a lot about humans in this clip. The younger individuals in the back celebrating the accomplishment while Shatner is sharing the impact. Age seems to have rewarded him with the clarity of how incredible it is to see our planet in the dark abyss of space.
Rich people taking joyrides into a 10minute orbit. Really stupid.
Seems fitting...
“You’ve given me the most profound experience” William Shatner 🥺🥺🥺 BlueOrigin
Did the Shat shart?
This is why actors need writers.
Are those champain people next to them anoying or what LOL can't hear what he is saying and it lookst so emotional. kaptainkirk
I wonder if he used priceline to book his trip
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