William Shatner and three others are set to launch 62 miles above Earth on Blue Origin’s New Shepard
Star Trek’s William Shatner, 90, prepares to become the oldest person EVER in space as he and three others get set to launch 62 miles above earth in Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket from Texas
Blue Origin is sending four people into space Wednesday during its second crewed flight missionWilliam Shatner, 90, who is famed for his role as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, will become the oldest person to head to space when the rocket takes off at 10:30am ET Along for the ride are paying customers Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries and Audrey Powers, who is Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operationsThe crew will soar atop the 60-foot-tall New Shepard rocket until they reach 62 miles above the surfaceThere they will spend three minutes floating around in zero gravity before returning to Earth
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William Shatner, 90, is one-step closer to earning the the title of oldest person in space – he and three others are set to launch 62 miles above Earth’s surface Wednesday morning.
The crew, which also includes Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries and Audrey Powers, are launching aboard Blue Origin‘s 60-foot-tall New Shepard rocket at 10:30am ET from the company’s Launch Site One in Van Horn, Texas.
All wearing blue flight suits with the company’s name in white letters on one sleeve, the team climbed into white capsule after a send off from Blue Origin boss Jeff Bezos who also drove them to the launch tower. and closed the hatch with just minutes left before launch.
The crew is strapped in their seats as they wait for countdown clock to run out and once it does, it will only take three minutes for NS18 to hit the 62-mile mark- passing the ‘Karman line’ that is the edge of space- after New Shepard leaves the launch pad.
The crew started their day early with a trip to the training center before the sun rose, allowing them to go over all the details of today’s flight.
All four members received a special challenge coin shortly after arriving at the training center, which represents belonging and the achievement of something great and is only awarded to astronauts who passed training and are set to fly on a spacecraft.
This is the second crewed flight conducted by the Jeff Bezos-owned company – the first took off on July 20 and Bezos himself was along for the ride.
However, Wednesday’s mission gained just as much attention as Shatner, who is famed for playing Captain James T. Kirk in the hit show ‘Star Trek,’ made a dream come true for millions who were inspired by the sci-fi television show.
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William Shatner (center), 90, is one-step close to earning the the title of oldest person in space – he and three others are set to launch 62 miles above Earth’s surface in less than two hours
The crew, which also includes Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries and Audrey Powers, are launching aboard Blue Origin’s 60-foot-tall New Shepard rocket at 10am ET from the company’s Launch Site One in Van Horn, Texas
The giant rocket rolled out to the launch pad in the early morning hours and was erected on the launch pad where it sits waiting patiently to shoot off into space
The team were shuttled to the launch pad in a Rivian truck
The ruck is being driving by Blue Origin boss Jeff Bezos
All four members received a special challenge coin shortly after arriving at the training center, which represents belonging and the achievement of something great and is only awarded to astronauts who passed training and are set to fly on a spacecraft
As an actor, Shatner was synonymous with space voyages. During the opening credits of each episode of the series, he called space ‘the final frontier’ and promised ‘to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.’
Shatner said there is both irony and symmetry to his space trip, having played a space explorer for decades and now actually becoming one.
‘Having played the role of Captain Kirk everybody assigns the knowledge that a futuristic astronaut would have, but I’ve always been consumed with curiosity and it is the adventure I feel so good doing,’ Shatner said in a video shared by Blue Origin Tuesday.
The three other individuals strapped inside the capsule also have a strong connection with space.
This is the second crewed flight conducted by the Jeff Bezos-owned company – the first took off on July 20 and Bezos himself was along for the ride
Pictured is the crew on their last day of training Tuesday. They are now gearing up to climb the launch tower and strap in the Blue Origin capsule to launch into space
All four members received a special challenge coin shortly after arriving at the training center, which represents belonging and the achievement of something great and is only awarded to astronauts who passed training and are set to fly on a spacecraft
Powers, who is Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations, has spent years watching missions soar into space and can now check a spaceflight off her bucket list.
‘I think I reached a certain age when I had given up on the idea that I would go to space,’ she said in a video clip.
‘In my role in mission flight operations, we were waiting to hear who the fourth astronaut was.’
Powers received a phone call from Michael Edmonds, a colleague, and told her: ‘On behalf of Jeff and the senior leadership we’d like you to represent team Blue and fly as the fourth astronaut.’
Blue Origin has not confirmed if Powers and Shatner paid for a seat, or the experience was gifted, but it is sure the other two passengers did.
Boshuizen, who has an estimated net worth approaching $30 million, was also the Space Mission Architect at NASA’s Ames Research Center between 2008 and 2012.
During this time he invented the Phonesat, which is a satellite built from a smartphone.
I’ve worked in space industry my entire life and I am excited the door is finally opening,’ Boshuizen said during a recent interview with Good Morning America (GMA).
‘I think we will look back at this day 50 years from now and go this was the year the human race started going to space.’
de Vries, co-founder of Medidata, said the spot on the New Shepard is a ‘dream come true.’
‘This is how innovation happens,’ he told GMA’s host TJ Holmes.
‘I lived in it healthcare and life sciences when you think about an industry being created and the opportunity for us to fuel that industry, as Chris was saying this is the beginning of a new time for space.
‘We are on the beginning of a curve that is just going to blast off.’
Cookies in the shape of the logos of Blue Origin (bottom) and ‘Star Trek’s’ Star Fleet Command are set on a table for the crew before the New Shepard NS-18 launches at 10am ET. Pictured right is the patch all four crew members are wearing for the mission
Bezos is sending several pieces of Star Trek artwork and ‘home-made toys’, that he created when he was nine, into space with actor William Shatner on the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket.
Bezos took to Instagram to announce the paper toys would be going up on the next rocket launch, adding he ‘made these tricorders and communicator to play Star Trek with my friends.’
His mother saved them for 48 years and dug them out a week before the launch, prompting Bezos to ask Shatner to take them with him into space, adding ‘please don’t judge me for the artwork. Thank you, Bill!’
One Tuesday, lead flight director, Nick Patrick, said that the crew completed their first day of training on Sunday. They also spent yesterday doing launch training.
‘The training itself was designed to do three things for our astronauts,’ Patrick said during a video interview.
‘The first thing is it’s designed to train them on the safety systems that we have onboard the crew capsule and the expected responses from the crew if we were to have an emergency.’
The second is to prepare the crew for the unexpected aspects of spaceflight such as strange noises, bumps and accelerations, Patrick explained.
The third part of training teaches the crew how to behave in zero-gravity inside the cabin without colliding with their flight mates, he continued.
‘I am very confident that we will learn tomorrow that this training has gone well for these four astronauts and we will be ready to launch them,’ said Patrick.
The four individuals are scheduled to pile inside a truck to the launch tower 45 minutes before lift-off.
The crew climbed the tower, and each rung a hanging silver bell before walking through a tunnel on the way to the launch capsule, which says above it ‘light this candle.’
They will blast off from a base in the west Texas town of Van Horn on a journey to the edge of space.
‘I’m going to see the vastness of space and the extraordinary miracle of our Earth and how fragile it is compared to the forces at work in the universe,’ Shatner told NBC’s ‘Today’ program.
The crew is launching from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in Van Horn, Texas
The New Shephard will travel beyond the 100km (62 mile) Karman line, defined internationally as the ‘edge of space’, where the crew will experience weightless for a few minutes before parachuting in the capsule back to the Texas desert
Shatner shot to fame when he took on the role of James T Kirk in the original Star Trek series in 1966
Shatner shot to fame when he took on the role of James T Kirk in the original Star Trek series in 1966.
This was four years after Alan Shephard – who the rocket he’ll travel in is named after – became the first American in space, and three years before Neil Armstrong walked on the surface of the moon.
‘I plan to be looking out the window with my nose pressed against the window. The only thing I don’t want to see is a little gremlin looking back at me,’ Shatner said referring to his role on Twilight Zone’s ‘Nightmare at 20,000 feet.’
