New Shepard Mission NS-18

I’m on my spaceship

“I hope I never recover from this,” he says afterward.

• https://youtu.be/KUoK_ItBtM0… WATCH THE FULL LENGTH

William Shatner, the alter ego of one of the most iconic space travelers ever, has completed his first real trip to space.

The iconic 90-year-old actor best known for playing James T. Kirk, captain of the Starship Enterprise in the Star Trek universe, blasted off atop a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket from the company’s west Texas launch site at 7:50 a.m. PT (9:50 a.m. local time) on Wednesday SCIENCE

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Shatner was joined in the New Shepard capsule by Chris Boshuizen, former NASA engineer and co-founder of satellite imaging company Planet Labs; Glen de Vries, an entrepreneur and executive with French software company Dassault Systemes; and Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations.  

Now playing: William Shatner’s Blue Origin flight supercut 10:50

A few minutes into the flight, the capsule separated from the booster and continued on to suborbital space, where the crew experienced weightlessness and an epic view of Earth before reentering the atmosphere for a parachute-assisted soft landing in the desert. The whole experience lasted just over 10 minutes. 

During the flight, Shatner’s Twitter account posted a quote from Isaac Newton:

During the last minutes of the descent, Shatner could be heard exclaiming, “That was unlike anything they described… that’s unlike everything you’ll ever see or ever feel again.

The crew was greeted by Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos as they exited the crew capsule on the valley floor of the Texas desert. Shatner choked up as he thanked the billionaire entrepreneur.

“What you have given me is the most profound experience… I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened. It’s extraordinary. I hope I never recover from this,” he said.

Shatner steps back to Earth.

After separation early in the flight, the New Shepard booster returned for an autonomous landing on the ground to be reused in the future. 

This is the second crewed flight ever for the space tourism company. The first flight of a New Shepard rocket  with humans aboard launched July 20 and carried company founder and mega-rich guy Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk and student Oliver Daemen on a quick trip to space.

Shatner now takes the title of oldest person ever in space from the 82-year-old Funk, who held the crown for under three months. 

The mission, dubbed NS18, was streamed live.

Shatner, who has also released over 10 albums as a recording artist, says he plans to write a song about the experience for his next album. 

“I want to write about my love of Earth,” Shatner said in an interview posted to Twitter.

The launch was originally scheduled for Oct. 12 but got bumped to the following day because of winds in the forecast. Liftoff was also delayed Wednesday morning by over 30 minutes, but New Shepard was finally able to get off the ground.

William Shatner to rocket to edge of space with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin

Captain Kirk won’t be zipping between planets like on Star Trek, but he’ll reach suborbital space.

It’s been decades since William Shatner first suited up to play the iconic role of Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise on Star Trek in the 1960s. The actor’s about to get a lot closer to his fictional counterpart’s accomplishments. Blue Origin announced Monday that Shatner is signed up to catch a rocket ride to suborbital space.

The rocket-powered New Shepard NS-18 mission is scheduled to take off from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch facility on Oct. 12 at 6:30 a.m. PT. The company will livestream the launch. 

Blue Origin already announced last week that former NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of satellite imaging company Planet Labs, and entrepreneur Glen de Vries, an executive with French software company Dassault Systemes, would be on that trip. Besides Shatner, the company also added Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations, Audrey Powers, to the journey.

Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin: A journey to space takes flight

While there have been some intense discussions about what qualifies as reaching “space,” Shatner could become the oldest person to fly to space, eclipsing aviation pioneer Wally Funk, who was 82 years old when she flew on board New Shepard’s first crewed flight on July 20. That accomplishment earned Funk what may be a short-lived Guinness World Record.

Bezos himself went along for that initial crewed flight, opening the door for other joyriders to log some time experiencing weightlessness. Shatner has been pretending to live in space since forever. Now he’ll get a tantalizing taste of the real thing.

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

Watch this: Watch highlights from Jeff Bezos full space flight 10:43

First published on Oct. 4, 2021 at 7:09 a.m. PT.Blue OriginJeff BezosStar TrekScience

William Shatner plans to write a song about his trip to space with Blue Origin

The fictional star captain is taking a real-life ride on Jeff Bezos’ spaceship.

James T. Kirk spent a lifetime in space, but in the real universe William Shatner is only going to experience a few minutes of weightlessness to look down upon Earth when he rides a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket over 62 miles up next week. 

The beloved actor says he plans to immortalize the experience using the art form he’s perhaps less known for: songwriting.

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) October 8, 2021

The Canadian actor is best known for his role as captain of the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek universe, but his musical career is almost as long and unique as his acting resume. He’s released at least a dozen albums ranging in genre from blues and country to a Christmas album and a Biblical reading released on a Jewish record label. 

Much of Shatner’s recorded work is done in a spoken-word style featuring his trademark delivery set against almost any kind of musical backdrop you can imagine, often resulting in some rather bizarre creations. Shatner’s musical career has occasionally been the butt of jokes, and Shatner himself hasn’t shied away from self-parody. https://www.youtube.com/embed/d5hae6PlPYA

Shatner is now 90 years old and his latest album dropped just a few weeks ago, on Sept 24. It’s a multi-genre extravaganza simply titled Bill, with guest performances from Joe Jonas, Joe Walsh and Brad Paisley, among others. 

The original space man has naturally been writing and singing songs about space for years — everyone should hear Space Truckin’ from Shatner’s album Seeking Major Tom at least once — but perhaps his musical magnum opus is yet to come. Blue OriginSpaceScience

Watch an awestruck William Shatner get emotional about trip to space

Captain Kirk spent a lifetime in space. The real Shatner visited for just a few minutes on Wednesday, and he made it clear which experience was more impactful.

In the world of marketing, few things are more valuable than a truly satisfied customer, and that’s exactly what Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin appear to have in William Shatner following the 90-year-old actor’s brief trip to space on Wednesday. 

As James T. Kirk on Star Trek, Shatner could often be contemplative and even profound at times. Of course, those lines were scripted by Gene Roddenberry and a host of writers over the years. But Shatner’s own words during his few minutes of weightlessness and upon return to Earth are among some of the most poignant delivered by a human visitor to space, made all the more wondrous when delivered in his trademark halting cadence.

“Weightlessness, oh Jesus!” Shatner is heard exclaiming in the above video as the New Shepard crew capsule crosses the Karman Line, the conventional divider between Earth’s atmosphere and space.

“No description can equal this, weightlessness… oh my god. Oh wow. Oh, I’m telling you. Oh my goodness me, oh wow, I can’t believe this.”

Not exactly poetry, but the earnest reaction of a man totally dumbfounded by a life-changing experience after nine decades of life is a wonderful thing to witness. While his crew mates float and flip around the capsule with a kind of giddy delight, Shatner appears to spend most of the flight totally awestruck and admiring the view. 

Once back on solid ground, after the champagne was sprayed on the desert floor, Shatner was able to begin gathering his words in conversation with Blue Origin and Amazon founder Bezos. You can watch the exchange at the 2:56 mark in the video below.

“What you have built, everyone in the world needs to do this,” Shatner tells Bezos. “Everybody in the world needs to see…” he trails off as he gets choked up. 

“The covering of blue, the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us, we think, oh that’s blue sky, and then suddenly you shoot through it all of a sudden as if you were to whip a sheet off of you when you’re asleep and you’re looking at the blackness… into black ugliness. And you look down and there’s the blue down there and the black up there and it’s just … there (below) is mother Earth and comfort and there (up, in space) is… is there death? I don’t know, is that how death is? Whoop! and it’s gone? Jesus.”

Shatner then rubs his eyes as he tears up again.

“It was so moving to me. This experience, it’s something unbelievable.”

You don’t get a much better testimonial than that. Can’t wait to hear the song Shatner writes about his flight. 

Watch this: William Shatner’s Blue Origin flight supercut 10:50