Reality surpasses fantasy, this time by far: Wlliam Shatner, the man who played the legendary Captain Kirk in the Star Trek TV series, will fly into space – for real – with Blue Orign, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos.
In the same New Shepard spacecraft, which will depart from Texas on 12 October, there will be three other civilians: Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s Vice President of Missions and Flight Operations, Chris Boshuizen, former NASA engineer and Glen de Vries, French entrepreneur.
Shatner, 90, will become the oldest person ever to fly into space, surpassing the record recently set by aviator Wally Funk, who at the age of 82 participated – together with Bezos – in the first Blue Origin flight composed only by civilians. The TMZ site, one of the most timely on the scoop affecting celebrities, claims that Shatner’s flight will be filmed and will be part of a documentary.
The New Shepard spacecraft, it must be remembered, is a fully autonomous vehicle, remotely piloted and part of a reusable rocket that takes off and lands vertically. The Blue Origin flight – from launch to ditching – takes approximately 11 minutes.
Jeff Bezos in space: the launch of the New Shepard spacecraft
When New Shepard comes around 100 km high, what is conventionally considered the border with Space, the capsule containing the passengers detaches from the central body of the rocket, continues its trajectory in conditions of microgravity for a short time and independently returns to Earth, operating a parachute.
Space, the Blue Origin flight successfully concluded: the shuttle landing
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