Beam Me Up Bezos! Star Trek Star William Shatner Headed To Space

The star of the popular space franchise “Star Trek” is headed to space, according to reports from TMZ. Here are the details on William Shatner going to space.

What Happened: Shatner will board the second civilian flight from Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon.com AMZN founder Jeff Bezos.

Shatner celebrated his 90th birthday in March. The “Star Trek” actor will become the oldest person in space, surpassing the record set on the last Blue Origin space flight by 82 year old Wally Funk, who broke a former John Glenn record.

The flight will happen in October aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket, according to the reports.

The 15-minute space flight will be recorded as a documentary that is currently being shopped to media outlets.

No other passengers have been announced for the flight, and it is unclear how much Shatner is paying as a passenger on the Blue Origin rocket.

While this will be Shatner’s first physical trip to space, his name was one of more than two million that were included on the InSight Mars rover by NASA in 2018.

Shatner will also technically be the second member of “Star Trek” to go to space, as the ashes of his co-star James Doohan who played Scotty were sent to space aboard a rocket from SpaceX in 2012.

Related Link: Jeff Bezos Vs. Richard Branson: Who Will Get To Space First? 

Why It’s Important: Many celebrities are among the hundreds of people reserving flights with Virgin Galactic SPCE for six figures per seat. Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio and Justin Bieber are among those who have booked future flights.

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk also reserved a future seat on a Virgin Galactic spaceflight.

Shatner is among the most famous celebrities and his connection to space could make this a huge event for Blue Origin.

Could Shatner become the new face and spokesperson for Blue Origin? Shatner famously represented the Priceline.com brand, now owned by Booking Holdings Inc BKNG. As the “Priceline Negotiator” Shatner was featured in commercials helping travelers save money on vacations.

Shatner has been vocal about wanting to go to space and hinted at a private flight in 2020. The “Star Trek” actor also tweeted at NASA in 2020 that his suit still fit if they wanted to use him on a flight.

“There’s a possibility that I’m going to go up for a brief moment and come back down,” Shatner said at a 2020 Comic-Con.

Shatner recently launched a new CD called “Bill” that he has been promoting on Twitter and its availability on Amazon.com.

Disclosure: Author is long shares SPCE.

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Posted In: NewsBlue OriginJeff BezosNASAspace stocksSpaceXStar TrekWilliam Shatner
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