William Shatner — the star of the original Star Trek TV series as Captain Kirk — became the oldest person in history to have traveled to space after his journey on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spacecraft successfully reached the edge of space on Wednesday morning.
“Everybody in the world needs to do this,” the Canadian actor told Bezos after the Blue Origin craft safely returned to Earth. “It was unbelievable.”
“It’s just — there is Mother Earth, life and comfort down there and up there,” he said gesturing upward, “is it just death? I don’t know.”
“What you see is black and what you see down there is light.”
“What you have given me is the most profound experience,” Shatner added, through tears. “I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened. I hope I never recover from this. I hope I can retain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it.”
As Blue Origin announced on their website, they “successfully completed its second human spaceflight on board New Shepard on Wednesday, October 13, 2021.”
“The flight included four astronauts, Dr. Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries, Audrey Powers, and William Shatner, as well as thousands of postcards from Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future,” the release continued.
“At Blue Origin, we are motivated by the dreamers that inspire us and the builders who turn those dreams into reality. Today’s crew represented both dreamers and builders. We had the honor of flying our very own Audrey Powers, Vice President of New Shepard Operations, who fulfilled a lifelong dream to go to space and has been an integral part of building New Shepard. Our two customers, Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries, have built their own successful ventures and have now realized their own dreams of space travel. And, as everyone knows, William Shatner has played an important role in describing and imagining the wonders of [the] universe and inspired many of us to pursue a career in the space industry,” said Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin. “This flight was another step forward in flying astronauts safely and often. It’s an incredible team and we are just getting started.”
As The Daily Wire reported earlier, “The rocket launched at 9:49 a.m. CST, reaching more than 50,000 feet in just one minute. The craft hit a top speed of more than 2,200 mph.”
“The capsule and booster separated a few minutes later and the craft eventually reached a top altitude of 351,185, a little more than 66.5 miles off the surface of the Earth. On descent, the craft created a loud sonic boom,” The Daily Wire continued. “Three small parachutes then popped out, pulling along three main red, white, and blue chutes.”
In a press release, Blue Origin explained that Shatner was included in the latest crew.
“William Shatner’s career as an actor, director, producer, writer, recording artist, and horseman has spanned 60 years,” the company said. “He originated the role of ‘Captain James T. Kirk’ in 1966 for the television series Star Trek. The series spawned a feature film franchise where Shatner returned as Captain Kirk in seven of the Star Trek movies, one of which he directed. He has long wanted to travel to space and will become the oldest person to have flown to space.”