In a great example of life slowly moving in the direction of art, Star Trek legend William Shatner will go into space—for real—today. Shatner is catching a ride off the Earth on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. Blue Origin is of course the space flight company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The flight has the designation NS-18 (the 18th New Shepard mission) and it will carry a crew of four: Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries, Audrey Powers, and William Shatner. All will officially be astronauts once they reach outer space. While Shatner will be the first Star Trek star to actually go into outer space, today’s flight sees the Captain Kirk actor achieve another milestone. At the age of 90, Shatner will be the oldest person ever to travel to outer space.
#NewShepard is go for launch! The mission team has completed the Flight Readiness Evaluation prior to #NS18. This is our final meeting with the engineers and Mission Control team to ensure all systems are go for launch. A thread: pic.twitter.com/nCBmVyTh2X
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) October 12, 2021
The NS-18 flight was supposed to lift off yesterday but was delayed due to windy conditions, reports The New York Times. But as of now, today’s flight looks to be on track. Shatner and the other three astronauts will lift off today at 10 a.m. ET, Wednesday, October 13. A livestream of the flight will begin 90 minutes before launch, which can be viewed on Blue Origin’s Youtube channel here (the stream is also embedded below).