![]() "To see the blue color whip by, and now you're staring into blackness, that's the thing. Everybody in the world needs to see," he said. "Everybody in the world needs to do this. The actor said he was struck by the vulnerability of Earth and the relative sliver of its atmosphere. WATCH: Billionaire Richard Branson reaches space in his own ship Shatner and his crewmates wore close-fitting, flame-retardant, royal-blue flight suits, not exactly the tight, futuristic-for-the-'60s V-necks that the crew of the Enterprise had on TV. Welcome to Earth!" a jubilant Bezos said as he opened the hatch of the New Shepard capsule, named for first American in space, Alan Shepard. He was there to greet them when the capsule floated back to Earth under its brilliant blue-and-red parachutes. Bezos said his mother had saved them for 48 years.īezos himself drove the four crew members to the launch pad, accompanied them to the platform high above the ground and cranked the hatch shut after they climbed aboard the 60-foot rocket. was racing for the moon, and went on to appear in a string of "Star Trek" movies.īezos is a huge "Star Trek" fan - the Amazon founder had a cameo as an alien in one of the later movies - and Shatner rode free as his invited guest.Īs a favor to Bezos, Shatner took up into space some "Star Trek" tricorders and communicators - sort of the iPhones of the future - that Bezos made when he was a 9-year-old Trekkie. Shatner starred in TV's original "Star Trek" from 1966 to 1969, back when the U.S. The flight brought priceless star power to Bezos' space-tourism business, given its built-in appeal to baby boomers, celebrity watchers and space enthusiasts. ![]() NASA sent best wishes ahead of the flight, tweeting: "You are, and always shall be, our friend." She said she, like so many others, was drawn to space by shows like "Star Trek." James Tiberius Kirk go to space," Blue Origin launch commentator Jacki Cortese said before liftoff. "This is a pinch-me moment for all of us to see Capt. The internet went wild, with Trekkies quoting favorite lines from Kirk, including, "Risk: Risk is our business. Sci-fi fans reveled in the opportunity to see the man best known as the brave and principled commander of the starship Enterprise boldly go where no star of American TV has gone before. WATCH: Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos reaches space on 1st passenger flight The flight included about three minutes of weightlessness and a view of the curvature of the Earth. Shatner became the oldest person in space, eclipsing the previous record - set by a passenger on a similar jaunt on a Bezos spaceship in July - by eight years. ![]() He said that going from the blue sky to the utter blackness of space was a moving experience: "In an instant you go, `Whoa, that's death.' That's what I saw." I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. "What you have given me is the most profound experience," an exhilarated Shatner told Bezos after climbing out of the hatch, the words spilling from him in a soliloquy almost as long as the flight. The "Star Trek" actor and three fellow passengers hurtled to an altitude of 66.5 miles (107 kilometers) over the West Texas desert in the fully automated capsule, then safely parachuted back to Earth in a flight that lasted just over 10 minutes. VAN HORN, Texas (AP) - Hollywood's Captain Kirk, 90-year-old William Shatner, blasted into space Wednesday in a convergence of science fiction and science reality, reaching the final frontier aboard a ship built by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company.
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