Star Trek hero William Shatner makes his first flight into space
William Shatner, best known for playing Captain Kirk in the Star Trek series, is now 90 years old, with hours away from bringing the science fiction he participated in in Star Trek to reality.
According to local reports, William Shatner will be launched into space aboard a space capsule belonging to the Blue Origin company to space, owned by the richest man in the world and founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, who launched a few months ago in turn on a similar trip.
Shatner will be accompanied on his space trip by 3 other people, including two who paid a sum of money for seats in the space capsule.
William Shatner's flight was scheduled to take off on Tuesday, but it was postponed to Wednesday, due to unfavorable weather conditions.
The famous Star Trek star will become the oldest person ever to travel to space, as the veteran actor completed his 90th year in...
last March.
William Shatner's journey to and from space will take 10 minutes, as the Blue Origin space capsule will carry him to an altitude of more than 106 km.
About this space flight, Shatner said that he had heard about space for a long time, and had finally seized the opportunity to see it for himself, describing it as a miracle.
He continued, saying that he would stay throughout the trip looking through the window, and then added jokingly that he wished he would not see a strange creature looking at it from the other side, in reference to the aliens and monsters that were an important part of the Star Trek films and series.
The Blue Origin space company said that the space capsule, which will be aboard the famous actor William Shatner
And his 3 companions, will depart from a base located in West Texas.
Shatner's space travelers include: a co-founder of a clinical research software company, a former NASA engineer who founded a mini-satellite company, and a Blue Origin employee.
It is worth noting that this is the second manned space flight launched by the American company, after it launched its first flight last July, which was carried by its founder, Jeff Bezos.
Star Trek is one of the most important science fiction series ever, and one of the first television works that discussed science fiction, as it was shown in the period between 1965-1969, before turning into a group of cinematic films, with the same crew of the series, headed by them. Famous actor William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk.
The events of the series and films revolved around the crew of the spaceship Enterprise, led by Captain Kirk, on their various adventures to explore space, and their encounter with many other alien creatures and civilizations.
This was the second flight of the Blue Shepherd spacecraft, after the one made by Jeff Bezos himself several months ago.
The flight lasted 10 minutes this morning, and the capsule reached a maximum height of 106 kilometers over the Texas desert.
Shatner and his three companions then landed in the desert.
It's unlike anything they've described before, said William Shatner, who broke a record by eight years ahead of another tourist who took a New Shepherd trip.
“I don’t know what I look like to the world,” Shatner wrote on Twitter. “To me, I look like a boy playing on the seashore and amusing myself with a softer pebble and a prettier shell than usual, while the great ocean of truth is undiscovered before me.”
Fans of fantasy films have enjoyed seeing the actor known as Captain Kirk on Star Trek go where no American TV actor has gone before.
Shatner said before the flight that he planned to spend three minutes during zero gravity flying through the ground, with his nose on
capsule windows.
It is noteworthy that Jeff Bezos is a big fan of the series Star Trek, and played a quick role as an alien in one of the latest Star Trek films.
Actor William Shatner was invited to participate in the trip to space and did not pay for it.
Alongside Shatner were Audrey Powers, a vice president at Blue Origin and former flight controller for NASA, Chris Buchweizen, a former NASA engineer, and Glenn De Fries of the 3D software company.
Blue Origin did not specify the price of tickets paid by the participants in the space tourism trip.
We are still at the beginning, and how miraculous this beginning is, and how miraculous it is to be a part of it, said actor William Shatner in a video released by Blue Origin on the eve of
Vehicle launch.
He continued, noting that there was a significant amount of curiosity about the fictional Captain Kirk who actually goes to space.
The billionaire Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Galactic, launched space tourism when he took a trip on a vehicle built by his company on July 11, followed by Jeff Bezos, founder of the e-commerce giant Amazon, nine days later on a flight aboard the New Shepard.
Billionaire Elon Musk launched a flight last month on the spacecraft built by his company, SpaceX.
And last week, Russia sent a film crew to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft.