Shatner to our flight crew! We’re going to have so much fun this week!” Boshuizen tweeted back. “Yes, it’s true I’m going to be a ‘rocket man!'” Shatner tweeted when Blue Origin revealed he was joining the crew.
The passengers will enjoy three to four minutes of weightlessness - and jaw-dropping views - before a parachute descent to Earth.
If all goes well, the New Shepard will carry the crew to an altitude of just above 62 miles, the internationally recognized “boundary” between the discernible atmosphere and space. “I want to have a perspective that hasn’t been shown to me before,” he said. But he said his actual motivation was “to have the vision, I want to see space, I want to see the Earth, I want to see what we need to do to save Earth.” In an interview with Gayle King om CBS Mornings, Shatner joked he’ll be able to brag about being the oldest person to fly in space. Running a day late because of high winds, liftoff from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site is targeted for 9:30 a.m. Shatner will join Australian Chris Boshuizen, founder of Earth-observation company Planet Labs, microbiologist Glen de Vries, and Blue Origin’s Audrey Powers for blastoff on a 10-minute up-and-down flight out of the discernible atmosphere to the edge of space.
Credit: Blue Originįifty-five years after his debut as Captain Kirk in the cult-classic TV series Star Trek, William Shatner, now 90, is finally launching to the final frontier for real Wednesday, becoming the oldest person to fly in space courtesy of Jeff Bezos and his rocket company Blue Origin.
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Space industry entrepreneur Chris Boshuizen, actor William Shatner, Blue Origin vice president Audrey Powers, and businessman Glen de Vries pose in their flight suits ahead of their launch on a suborbital flight to the edge of space.