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Shatner Becomes Oldest Person to Travel to Space

By News and Guts

William Shatner, the 90 year-old actor famous for playing Captain Kirk on the series “Star Trek,” traveled 66.5 miles above the earth’s surface aboard a Blue Origin rocket ship on Wednesday, becoming the oldest person in history to travel to space. (Watch Above)

“I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it,” Shatner said after returning from the 10 minute journey.

He said transitioning from the blue sky into complete darkness was a “profound experience.” He added, “In an instant you go, whoa, that’s death. That’s what I saw.”

Shatner and three fellow passengers experienced three minutes of weightlessness and were treated to views of earth’s curved surface. Their capsule safely landed in West Texas, as planned.

The billionaire owner of Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is a massive “Star Trek” fan. He invited Shatner to ride the rocket for free. The Associated Press reports:

Bezos himself drove the four crew members to the pad, accompanied them to the platform high above the ground and cranked the hatch shut after they climbed aboard the 60-foot rocket. A jubilant Bezos was there to greet them when the capsule floated back to Earth under its brilliant blue-and-red parachutes.

“Hello, astronauts. Welcome to Earth!” Bezos said as he opened the hatch of the New Shepard capsule, named for first American in space, Alan Shepard.

Bezos, who traveled to space earlier this year, wants to turn Blue Origin into a space tourism company. After his flight, Shatner sounded like a willing spokesperson.
“Everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to see,” he said. “To see the blue color whip by and now you’re staring into blackness, that’s the thing.”
He added, “It hasn’t got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death.”