William Shatner emotional after historic space flight; shares moving experience with Bezos

Canadian actor William Shatner scripted history on Wednesday by becoming the oldest man ever to travel to space. The 90-year-old, who played Captain James T Kirk in the Star Trek films, soared aboard a Blue Origin rocketship on a suborbital trip and landed in the Texas desert. Shatner's trip on the rocket system developed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lasted about 10 minutes. The craft safely landed just after 8:30 pm (IST). 

Those aboard got to experience a brief period of weightlessness as they soared to a maximum altitude just above 100km (60 miles). In space, they were able to see the curvature of the Earth through the capsule's huge glass windows.

When the capsule touched down in the Texas desert, it was quickly surrounded by ground teams. Shatner was welcomed with open arms and loud applause by Jeff Bezos himself, who opened the hatch to check if everyone inside was okay. 

William Shatner gets emotional after space flight

"Everybody in the world needs to do this," an emotional Shatner told the billionaire after landing back on Earth. "It was unbelievable."

In tears, he added: "What you have given me is the most profound experience. I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. I hope I never recover from this. I hope I can retain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it."

After the immediate celebrations with family and friends, the crew then lined up to receive their Blue Origin astronaut pin. 

Shatner was accompanied on the flight by Blue Origin Vice President Audrey Powers; Chris Boshuizen, who co-founded the Earth-imaging satellite company Planet; and Glen de Vries, an executive with the French healthcare software corporation Dassault Systèmes.

They were trained for a couple of days, even though there was nothing really major for them to do during the flight except enjoy it. The New Shepard Mission NS-18 rocket and capsule system is a fully automatic one.

This was the second crewed outing for New Shepard. The rocketship first took off on July 20, carrying Bezos, his brother Mark, Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen; and famed aviator Wally Funk. Funk, being 82, was then the oldest person in space - a title she has now relinquished to Shatner.

William Shatner goes to space

(Image credits: Blue Origin)