Captain Kirk’s Going to Space: Shatner Set for Blue Origin Flight
William Shatner is headed to space, reportedly signing on to Jeff Bezos’ second Blue Origin crew.
According to TMZ’s unnamed sources, the 90-year-old actor — whose character Captain Kirk famously served on the U.S.S. Enterprise in Star Trek — will be onboard the New Shepard capsule for a 15-minute civilian flight in October. That would make him the oldest person to ever take part in a space mission.
The event will be reportedly filmed for a documentary, with negotiations currently taking place after stalled discussions with Discovery. The other crew members for the flight were not revealed.
Shatner’s flight would follow the first launch from Blue Origin, Bezos’ aerospace company. On July 20, the Amazon founder rocketed into space for a 10-minute flight with a handpicked crew: his brother Mark Bezos, 82-year-old pilot Wally Funk and 18-year-old Dutch teen Oliver Daemen. (The latter two became the oldest and youngest, respectively, to experience space flight.) With that excursion - which reached an altitude of roughly 66 miles, the Associated Press reported - Bezos became the second billionaire in less than two weeks to enter space, following Richard Branson’s July 11 mission.
While Shatner hasn’t previously left Earth, his voice has: In March 2011, the actor (and occasional spoken-word rock artist) recorded a wake-up message for the STS-133 crew onboard the Discovery space shuttle. That announcement, featuring the Star Trek theme, was set to the sci-fi show's theme music.
"These have been the voyages of the space shuttle Discovery,” he said. "Her 30-year mission: To seek out new science. To build new outposts. To bring nations together on the final frontier. To boldly go, and do, what no spacecraft has done before.”