The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Actor William Shatner will fly to space aboard Blue Origin rocket
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. » Captain Kirk is rocketing into space next week — boldly going where no other sci-fi stars have gone.
Jeff Bezos’ space travel company, Blue Origin, announced Monday that “Star Trek” actor William Shatner will blast off from West Texas on Oct. 12.
“Yes, it’s true; I’m going to be a ‘rocket man!’” the 90-year-old tweeted. He added: “It’s never too late to experience
new things.”
Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is a huge fan of the sci-fi series and even had a cameo as a high-ranking alien in the 2016 film “Star Trek Beyond.” His rocket company invited Shatner to fly as its guest.
Shatner will become the oldest person to go to space. He’ll join three others — two of them paying customers — aboard a Blue Origin capsule. He’ll wind up being the second actor to reach space this month: Russia is launching an actress and a film director to the International Space Station on Tuesday for almost two weeks of moviemaking.
Shatner’s flight, by comparison, will last just 10 minutes and reach no higher than about 66 miles. The capsule will parachute back to the desert floor, not far from where it took off.
With flights short or long, space tourism is picking up steam fast.
Virgin Galactic carried founder Richard Branson to the edge of space with five others in July, followed nine days later by Bezos’ space hop. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, meanwhile, launched its first private crew last month — a Pennsylvania entrepreneur who bought the three-day flight and took along two contest winners and a cancer survivor.
Virgin Galactic’s ship launches from an airplane and requires two pilots. Blue Origin and SpaceX’s capsules are fully automated, but the passengers must pass medical screenings and, among other things, be able to quickly climb several flights of steps at the launch tower to get to the capsule — or out of it in an emergency.
This will be Blue Origin’s second launch of a crew.
Bezos was on the debut flight on July 20. He took along his brother, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands and 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk — the youngest and oldest to fly in space. Shatner will break that upper threshold by eight years.