Blue Origin’s New Shephard rocker launched William Shatner and three other private citizens into space, where they experienced four minutes of weightlessness. (Image Credit: Blue Origin)
After a few delays, Star Trek actor William Shatner finally launched into space! At 10:50 a.m. EDT, Blue Origin’s New Shepherd spacecraft lifted off from Launch Site One in West Texas with three others aboard. The capsule continued its ascent into space, crossing the Karman line 62 miles up. At 10:54 a.m. EDT, the New Shephard booster’s BE-3 engine shut down and separated from the crew capsule.
The New Shepard rocket and capsule carried William Shatner, Blue Origin’s Audrey Powers, co-founder of Planet Chris Boshuizen, and Glen de Vries, vice chair for life sciences and healthcare at Dassault Systèmes. Overall, the entire crew experienced about four minutes of weightlessness, where they floated in the cabin.
Seven minutes after launch, Blue Origin’s booster successfully landed back to Earth just two miles north of the launchpad. This marks the 4th successful flight for the booster. At the same time, the crew capsule deployed its parachute to descend back to Earth. Shortly after, Shatner and the NS-18 crew landed safely near Blue Origin’s West Texas facilities.
The crew capsule landed safely seven minutes after liftoff. (Image Credit: Blue Origin)
"That was unlike anything they described," Shatner said via a radio link as the capsule parachuted back to Earth. "Everybody in the world needs to do this," he told Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos after landing. "That was unbelievable."
At 90 years old, Shatner becomes the oldest person to launch into space, breaking the previous record set by 82-year old Wally Funk, who flew on July 20th with Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin plans on launching regular space tourism flights with its New Shepard rockets. However, the company hasn’t released ticket sale dates or prices yet.
Recently, William Shatner appeared on Cuomo Prime Time, where he spoke about his trip to space.
“When I saw the bright blue covering of Earth that’s only 50 miles wide,” said Shatner, “and we plunged through at 2,500 miles an hour, broke through it, then all of a sudden like a punch in the face there was the blackness of space. And none of the mystery of the twinkling stars, the galaxies, just pure blackness. Because the sun was in my face and the wind, whatever the reasons were. Space is cold and ominous and ugly, and it really threatens death. There’s death there. And you look down, and there’s this warm, nurturing planet.”
He added, “That’s death up there and life down here. And between the two, ruining this planet as we are, we’re on the verge – to bring you the ‘good’ news – that we’re at the tipping point. We haven’t got time to wait 30 years and argue about a few billion dollars, which we should — how much should we invest in global warming? We’re there. And so all these terrible things happening in the body politic is merely a hesitation before we all–I mean, it’s just terrible. I wish I had better news and more entertainment and jokes to tell you. But I was moved to tears by what I saw. And I come back, filled and overwhelmed by sadness and empathy for this beautiful thing we call Earth.”
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