Star Trek’s William Shatner returns from record-breaking Blue Origin space flight: “Everybody in the world needs to do this”
William Shatner tells Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos about his experience on record-breaking space flight
OCTOBER 13, 2021 - William Shatner has officially become the oldest person in space, surpassing the previous record-holder, 82-year-old Wally Funk, who herself broke the previous record just months ago.
Shatner, who turned 90 in March, was a passenger aboard NS-18, the latest mission from former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ commercial spaceflight company, Blue Origin. The mission took a civilian crew of four on a short, suborbital flight designed to hit its maximum altitude just above the Karman Line, the name given to the 62-mile point above sea level that many consider to be the place where Earth ends and “space, the final frontier” begins.
During the flight, Shatner posted a pre-scheduled tweet, quoting Sir Isaac Newton, accompanied by the image of a Star Trek delta with a feather in the place of a division symbol: “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now & then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
NS-18 launched at 9:49am CDT and, after having separated from the reusable launch vehicle near apogee, the crew capsule touched back down to Earth at 9:59am CDT. The flight reached an altitude nearly 350,000 ft above the Earth, and endured speeds more than 2,200 mph. The mission was originally scheduled for a Tuesday morning launch, but was postponed due to forecasted high winds; Wednesday’s launch went off as planned.
On coming down to Earth, Shatner spoke with Bezos about his experience and (after a brief interruption where much champagne was popped), the former Star Trek captain seemed almost at a loss for words. He did speak at length about his amazement at watching the blue of Earth’s atmosphere drop away from him, saying, “Everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to see. [...] To see the blue color go - whip! - by, and now you’re staring at the black.”
Then, holding back tears, Shatner told Bezos, “What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine. I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened. I just...it’s extraordinary. Extraordinary. I hope I never recover from this.”
If you missed Blue Origin’s NS-18 launch, you can watch it back on their YouTube channel. Learn more about NS-18 and other Blue Origin endeavours at blueorigin.com.