William Shatner Rides Blue Origin Rocket to Space and Back

William Shatner gained worldwide notoriety playing a spaceman on TV, and now he’s become one for real. The Star Trek actor was among three other passengers on a Blue Origin rocket on Wednesday. The flight went off without a hitch, delivering Shatner and his fellow passengers to space and returning them safely to Earth.

Blue Origin is one of three companies that have begun offering expensive tickets to space. Elon Musk’s SpaceX recently had its first all-civilian leisure cruise in the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Meanwhile, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has started flying to the edge of space in its SpaceShipTwo planes. And then there’s the New Shepard rocket that Blue Origin used to send Captain Kirk into space.

Unlike the SpaceX Dragon, New Shepard is not an orbital spacecraft. Instead, it shoots straight up, reaching an altitude of around 66 miles (106 kilometers). That’s just over the Kármán line (100 kilometers), which is generally accepted as the transition between Earth and space. Then, the rocket drops back down and lands on terra firma. Passengers get a few minutes of weightlessness, along with a stunning view.

Shatner was overcome with emotion after landing, waxing philosophic about the nature of life and death and how it’s mirrored in the transition from blue sky to the inky black of space. “What you have given me is the most profound experience,” he said to Blue Origin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who was naturally on-hand to get some positive PR for once. “I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened. I just, it’s extraordinary, extraordinary. I hope I never recover from this,” he continued.

17th consecutive booster landing for #NewShepard and fourth consecutive landing for this particular booster. #NS18 pic.twitter.com/67aQbRZreu

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) October 13, 2021

This is just the second successful passenger launch for New Shepard. The first one included Jeff Bezos, but he didn’t ride along with Shatner. The launch did include two paying customers (Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries), plus Blue Origin’s VP of flight operations, Audrey Powers. All four were presented with astronaut wings by Bezos upon landing.

The Shatner flight is a nice distraction for Bezos, but it comes amid increasing questions about Blue Origin’s direction. Reports have pointed to a toxic work culture at the company, and more than 20 current and former employees have publicly raised concerns about the safety of New Shepard. The company is also verging on “poor loser” status as it sues to stop SpaceX from getting NASA contracts.

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