"Star Trek" actor William Shatner will board the second civilian flight from Blue Origin — the space company of Amazon.com Inc AMZN founder Jeff Bezos — a day later than scheduled.
What Happened: The space tourism company said on Sunday it has decided to postpone the flight that would fly Shatner to space due to weather conditions.
The NS-18 mission will now launch from Blue Origin's West Texas site, near the town of Van Horn on Wednesday. “Weather is the only gating factor for the launch window,” Blue Origin said.
See Also: Beam Me Up Bezos! Star Trek Star William Shatner Headed To Space
Why It Matters: Shatner, 90, 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.
No other passengers have been announced for the 15-minute space flight, and it is unclear how much Shatner is paying as a passenger on the Blue Origin rocket.
A new wave of space tourism, kickstarted by Virgin Galactic SPCE, Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk run SpaceX and Blue Origin, is seeing celebrities book flights for as much as six figures per seat. Some of the popular people that have booked future flights include Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio and Justin Bieber.
Price Action: SPCE shares closed 0.39% lower at $23.12 on Friday.
Photo: Courtesy of Gage Skidmore via Flickr
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