William Shatner‘s about to rocket into space, courtesy of Jeff Bezos and one of his Blue Origin rockets … and you can watch his journey trek to the stars right here.
Captain Kirk and his crew — which includes Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers, former NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen, and software mogul Glen de Vries — are counting down to their liftoff … targeted for 9:00 AM CDT in Texas.
Blue Origin
Just a moment ago, we got our first look of Shatner in the space suit he’ll be rocking on his way up — and let’s just say it’s not as silky smooth as what he wore on the Enterprise all those years ago. Still looks good, though — and the dude’s crew seems ready as well.
The iconic, 90-year-old actor is set to become the oldest person to ever go up into space, beating out 82-year-old test pilot Wally Funk … who joined Bezos, his brother, Mark, and recent HS grad Oliver Daemen, when they took Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule up for its premiere launch in July.
Blue Origin
As you’ll recall … that initial crew went up to space for about 15 minutes, reached an altitude of 66.5 miles, floated around for a bit in zero-gravity while playing with ping-pong balls … then came back down for safe landing.
Blue Origin
Shatner’s civilian flight will be very similar, but our sources say the mission will be also filmed for a documentary.
Still no word if Shatner will be decked out in ‘Star Trek’ gear … but we’ll see soon.