As 'Captain Kirk' William Shatner travels to space, netizens say 'Fiction meets reality'

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin marked their second successful crewed spaceflight with all four astronauts landing safely after 11 minutes of flight time. While this is a major leap for the aerospace firm, they also made history as one of the astronauts on the flight, actor William Shatner became the oldest person to go to space at the age of 90. As if his stellar performance in the space adventure drama Star Trek wasn't enough, fans have got another reason to believe that he is 'Captain Kirk' in real life as well. 

Blue Origin's New Shepard’s 18th mission

Blue Origin’s second manned mission NS-18 took from Blue Origin's West Texas site on October 13 at 8:20 pm IST. The astronauts in spaceflight namely Glen de Vries, vice chair at French software company Dassault Systèmes, Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice-president of mission and flight operations, and Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of Earth observation company Planet Labs included the Star Trek actor William Shatner who played the role of Captain James T. Kirk in the franchise. The 90-year-old actor scripted history by becoming the world’s oldest person to travel to space after the Crew NS18 capsule successfully touched down. 

The actor shot to fame after portraying the role of commander of the Starship Enterprise captain James T. Kirk in the long-standing space adventure franchise Star Trek. He appeared in the series for three years from 1966 to 1969. He also played the role in seven movies. 

William Shatner hailed as 'Captain Kirk'

Netizens who witnessed the successful spaceflight of the actor along with avid Star Trek fans could not help but hail the veteran actor for being Captain Kirk in real life. One user shared pictures of the spaceflight and wrote, 'Where's Captain Kirk! HE'S IN SPACE!'' Many tweeted about how they marvelled at the flight taking off knowing 'Captian Kirk' went to space at the age of 90. Check out the tweets of fans who cannot help but hail William Shatner as Captain Kirk.

Earlier, the veteran actor opened up about the opportunity to travel to Associated Press by saying, ''I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle''. He also interacted with his fans on Twitter and shared updates on his flight.

Image: AP/Twitter/@jameskirk