Canadian actor William Shatner is on the passenger list for Blue Origin’s next commercial flight into space, because of course he is.
The Verge reports that Shatner will be joining the 11-minute voyage on the aerospace company’s New Shepard rocket alongside former NASA engineer and Planet Labs co-founder Chris Boshuizen, French software executive Glen de Vries, and Blue Origin vice-president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers.
So now I can say something. Yes, it’s true; I’m going to be a “rocket man!” 😝🤣 https://t.co/B2jFeXrr6L
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) October 4, 2021
Shatner is best known for his role as James T. Kirk, the shirt-ripping, alien-wrestling, diplomat-smooching captain of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise — and best loved by this author as James Spader’s queer platonic husband in the criminally forgotten aughts’ court drama Boston Legal.
At 90 years old, Shatner will become the oldest person to ever visit space — you know, the nonagenarian-friendly place where “astronauts lose on average 1 percent to 2 percent of their bone mineral density every month.”
The New Shepard is a suborbital rocket system and Blue Origin’s entry into the complicated new frontier of space tourism.
Blue Origin’s CEO, noted soft-serve ice cream enthusiast Jeff Bezos, was among the passengers on New Shepard’s first tourist flight in July.
While the Canadian Space Agency’s website assures me a short-duration flight poses little risk to Shatner’s bones, I would kindly ask that no one contact me at 9:30am ET/6:30am PT on Tuesday, October 12th when live launch coverage is scheduled to begin, as I — alongside my father, who remembers sitting down to watch black-and-white ST:TOS episodes every week as a kid — will be busy.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Source: The Verge
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