Star Trek legend William Shatner is on his way to space!
Seattle, Washington - William Shatner is ready for a real-life star trek. The actor will be aboard Blue Origin's latest space flight on October 12, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos announced on Monday.
The 90-year-old Shatner, who starred as Captain Kirk on the Star Trek series and seven of the franchise's movies, will be one of four people on the New Shepard spacecraft for the launch.
"I've heard about space for a long time now," Shatner said in the announcement. "I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle."
Joining Shatner on the launch will be Audrey Powers, the vice president of missions and operations for Blue Origin.
"I'm so proud and humbled to fly on behalf of Team Blue, and I'm excited to continue writing Blue's human spaceflight history," Powers said.
"As an engineer and lawyer with more than two decades of experience in the aerospace industry, I have great confidence in our New Shepard team and the vehicle we've developed."
Crew mates Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries will also be aboard the flight, which is scheduled to take off from the Launch Site One in West Texas at 8:30 am CST that day.
Their launch comes less than three months after Blue Origin's first human flight lifted off from West Texas on July 20 with Bezos on board.
Bezos, who founded Amazon, has a goal of sending customers to space through Blue Origin.
The July space flight with Bezos, whom Forbes now lists as the world's second-richest man – after Elon Musk – travelled to an altitude of 66 miles.
"My expectations were high, and they were dramatically exceeded," Bezos said at the time.
Another member of that flight, 82-year-old Wally Funk, became the oldest person to go to space.
Cover photo: Collage: 123RF/forplayday & IMAGO / Future Image