William Shatner Astronaut
Today marks Blue Origin New Shepard’s 18th mission, NS-18, which will lift off on Wednesday, October 13, carrying four astronauts, Dr. Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries, Audrey Powers, and William Shatner, to space and back.
William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk on “Star Trek,” will become the oldest person to have flown in space at 90 years old. He slides in front of the current record holder Wally Funk, the charismatic aerospace trailblazer who flew on Blue Origin’s first human spaceflight on July 20 alongside Jeff Bezos. Shatner is 90, while Funk is 82.
What kind of experience will the crew have? Well, they will be floating around in microgravity and experience the most amazing views of Earth, in what is about a 10-minute rocket ship ride blasting off from West Texas. The capsule will head up to about 100 kilometres above the surface of the Earth, the rocket, the New Shepard that they are blasting off on lands back to be reused and after a few minutes of experiencing the epic views of space as well as floating around in microgravity the capsule will return the crew with parachutes to create a soft landing. It will be quite a ride, not the same as flying into space and orbiting the Earth and the experience on the International Space Station, but this marks this era of space tourism.
Many will be asking the question, will his 90-year-old body be okay up there and what sort of pressure will it be under? Well, the crew will certainly experience some forces. William Shatner along with all the other Blue Origin passengers will have gone through some training (about a few days worth) for health and safety. Equally, they’ll be trained to know what to expect, like the strange noises they can expect so that they can enjoy the experience without worrying about the processes working away to get them to space.
As luck would have it, Jeff Bezos chauffeur drives the crew to the launch site ahead of launch at 15:00 British Summer Time today. If that isn’t service with a special touch…I am not sure what is.
Ad Astra to the New Shepard 18 crew!
