He became famous as Captain James Tiberius Kirk on Star Trek, boldly going where no man had gone before – and now William Shatner is actually going to outer space.
At 90, the actor will become the oldest person ever to travel to space on 12 October, when he will lift off on the second manned flight by Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
“I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle,” he said in a statement.
The flight on the New Shepard 18 rocket, taking off from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site next week, will last around 10 minutes and will take Mr Shatner – along with Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s Vice President of Mission & Flight Operation – about 100 kilometres above the Earth, just past the Karman Line, an internationally-recognised boundary of space.
Jeff Bezos himself was on board Blue Origin’s first manned flight, along with his brother Mark, 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, and 82-year-old Wally Funk; Mr Shatner will break Mr Funk’s record of “oldest person in space”, though Mr Daemen will keep his record as youngest.
Of course, if you’re over 90 and have a cool few million to spare, you might want to break it again yourself…
