'Star Trek' star William Shatner to fly to space with Jeff Bezos, be oldest man in space - report
The 90-year-old famous for playing Captain James T. Kirk might boldly go where no old man has gone before, becoming the oldest man to ever fly to space.
By AARON REICH
Jerusalem Post, SEPTEMBER 26, 2021
Publicity photo of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner as Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk from the television program Star Trek. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Jewish-Canadian actor William Shatner,
90, is about to set a new record in his career. The Star Trek actor is
heading off to space alongside Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in October, TMZ
reported Saturday.
While Shatner's most iconic character, Stark Trek's
James T. Kirk, may have made fictional Starfleet history by becoming
its youngest ever captain, the real-life actor will be doing the
opposite by boldly going where no man of his age has gone before.
Shatner no longer stars as Kirk in Star Trek media but has remained the face of the franchise. He has also recently released a music album, titled Bill, available on Amazon.
It is unclear why Shatner would be boarding the 15-minute-long
flight. According to TMZ, there is potential for a documentary in this
saga.
Yet Shatner
has expressed a desire to head into space before. Back in 2020, after
the successful return of a team astronauts following a flight by Elon
Musk's SpaceX, Shatner tweeted a picture of himself in a spacesuit and
the caption LAUNCH AMERICA, writing "BTW @NASA - just in case, the suit
does fit!"
It
also follows the first successful all-civilian flight into space,
showing just how accessible space travel is becoming to non-astronauts.
If he accompanies Bezos, Shatner would be the oldest person to ever
leave the atmosphere. As of now, the current record-holder is Wally
Funk, an 82-year-old test pilot who accompanied Bezos on his July
flight.
However, if he does go to space with Bezos, one question remains: Who is footing the bill?
Space travel is becoming more accessible but is still incredibly
expensive, and Bezos is known to keep this price tag high. In the July Blue Origin flight,
the last civilian seat was auctioned off for an astronomical $20
million. Will Shatner pay the out-of-this-world price tag out of pocket
to fly out of this world?
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