‘Captain Kirk’ made it, round trip with Bezos’ rocket

Actor William Shatner, who in the role of Captain Kirk spent nearly forty years commanding the USS Enterprise, made the transition from fiction to reality. Aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Shepard rocket, Shatner, along with three other civilian crewmates, completed an 11-minute flight. Compared to the borders of the galaxy that he used to explore in ‘Star Trek’, the actor had to settle for a less epic journey, slightly exceeding the boundary of Space, pushing himself to an altitude of 100 kilometers. But at the age of 90, Shatner still set the record for the oldest astronaut in the history of space travel. The launch of the New Shepard was scheduled for 3.30 pm (Italian time) from the ramp of Van Horn, Texas, but had to suffer a slight delay. Today’s flight marks the second manned launch for the Bezos rocket. In July, the same 57-year-old Amazon founder and richest man in the world, his brother Mark, and two other passengers completed the maiden flight. Canadian Shatner broke the record for the oldest astronaut from 82-year-old Wally Funk, a former US aviator, who was part of Bezos’ crew this summer.