TV’s ‘Captain Kirk’ goes to space, for real this time

William Shatner became the oldest person to fly into space

NS-18 crew member, "Star Trek" actor William Shatner speaks to the press at the New Shepard rocket landing pad on October 13.

Life imitated art as actor William Shatner, 90, who played the iconic Star Trek character Captain James T. Kirk, became the oldest person to fly into space on Wednesday morning.

Mr. Shatner was part of a crew of four, in ‘New Shepard’, a space capsule from Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s spaceflight company.

The age record was held for a few months by Wally Funk, 82, who was part of a crewed Blue Origin flight that went into space on July 20.

The flight, which lifted off from Texas, lasted 10 minutes and 11 seconds, with a maximum ascent velocity of 3,597 km/h, according to data posted by Blue Origin on its Twitter account. The apogee (i.e., the maximum distance from the earth) attained was 3,51,000 feet. The other passengers on board were a Blue Origin employee and two paying customers.

Mr. Shatner, visibly overwhelmed with emotion after returning to earth, was embraced by Mr. Bezos .

“What you have given me is the most profound experience,” he said, about the flight. “I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it.”

This year has seen the beginnings of space tourism — with a flight by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic in July as well as the first Blue Origin flight that month and another flight by Elon Musk’s SpaceX a few weeks ago. Blue Origin’s leadership was recently accused by a group of employees — current and former — of fostering a sexist, toxic workplace. The company was also accused of prioritising the speed of launches over their safety. The company had said it would investigate the matter.