William Shatner will fly to space aboard Blue Origin rocket | Agriculture

“Yes, it’s true; I’m going to be a ‘rocket man!’” the 90-year-old tweeted. He added: “It’s never too late to experience new things.”

Bezos, the founding father of Amazon, is a large fan of the sci-fi sequence and even had a cameo as a high-ranking alien within the 2016 movie “Star Trek Beyond.” His rocket company invited Shatner to fly as its guest.

Shatner will become the oldest person to go to space. He’ll join three others — two of them paying customers — aboard a Blue Origin capsule. He’ll wind up being the second actor to reach space this month: Russia is launching an actress and a film director to the International Space Station on Tuesday for almost two weeks of moviemaking.

Shatner’s flight, by comparison, will last just 10 minutes and reach no higher than about 66 miles (106 kilometers). The capsule will parachute back to the desert floor, not far from where it took off.

With flights short or long, space tourism is picking up steam fast.

Virgin Galactic carried founder Richard Branson to the edge of space with five others in July, followed nine days later by Bezos’ space hop. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, meanwhile, launched its first private crew last month — a Pennsylvania entrepreneur who bought the three-day flight and took along two contest winners and a cancer survivor.

Virgin Galactic’s ship launches from an airplane and requires two pilots. Blue Origin and SpaceX’s capsules are fully automated, but the passengers must pass medical screenings and, among other things, be able to quickly climb several flights of steps at the launch tower to get to the capsule — or out of it in an emergency.

This will be Blue Origin’s second launch of a crew.

Bezos was on the debut flight on July 20. He took along his brother, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands and 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk — the youngest and oldest to fly in space. Shatner will break that upper threshold by eight years.

“I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle,” Shatner stated in an announcement.

Shatner performed the function of the USS Starship Enterprise’s commander for 3 seasons, from 1966 to 1969. He additionally portrayed Captain James T. Kirk in seven films, directing considered one of them. He’s at the moment the host and govt producer of a History Channel present, “The UnXplained.”

The ashes of two different “Star Trek” powerhouses — creator Gene Roddenberry and actor James Doohan, who performed Scotty — rocketed into space years in the past following their deaths.

Also launching with Shatner: a former NASA engineer who based a nanosatellite firm and the co-founder of a software program firm specializing in scientific analysis. The two took half within the public sale for a seat on the primary flight. That seat price $28 million; Blue Origin is not divulging another ticket costs.

A fourth seat on the flight goes to Blue Origin’s vp of mission and flight operations, who used to work for NASA as a space station flight controller.

A Blue Origin spokeswoman stated Shatner, just like the others, met all the corporate’s well being and bodily necessities.

Last week, greater than 20 present and former Blue Origin workers accused the Kent, Washington-based firm of getting a poisonous work setting and never adhering to correct security protocols. Blue Origin stated it doesn’t tolerate harassment or discrimination and stood by its security report.

Bezos’ firm can be difficult a NASA contract award to SpaceX for offering a lunar lander that will return astronauts to the moon in a number of years. Blue Origin was unsuccessful in its bid for the job.

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This story has been corrected to present that Shatner will be oldest to go to space by eight years, not six.