William Shatner Had Some Wild Things To Say About His Real-Life Space Voyage

Humanity has long looked up to the stars in wonder, so those among us who actually get to visit space are lucky people. Leaving our world and seeing it from above must be a unique and profound experience, and one which by all accounts can have a life-changing impact on those who experience it. Star Trek legend William Shatner made the journey for real in 2021 — but his recollections of the experience are actually very disturbing.

No spring chicken

The man who played Captain James Kirk was brought to space aboard one of Blue Origin’s New Shepard shuttles on October 13, 2021. Shatner wasn’t exactly a spring chicken by this point, and he became the oldest person to ever leave the Earth. He was 90 at the time.

Record-holders

The previous holder of that record had only visited space a few months before Shatner. This was Wally Funk, who had made the trip aged 82. Funk had once trained as an astronaut, but had never been permitted to actually go to space before. That changed in the summer of 2021 when she accompanied Blue Origin’s founder, Jeff Bezos, on a flight.

At Bezos’ invitation

The New Shepard shuttle that fired Shatner into space was the same one that had taken Bezos and Funk on their journey. Bezos is supposedly a Star Trek devotee, so he made the decision to invite the Captain Kirk actor along for a trip. Alongside Shatner were Glen de Vries, Audrey Powers, and Chris Boshuizen.

Flight number two

Shatner’s trip was flight number two in what Blue Origin hopes will develop into a lucrative space-tourism enterprise. The plan is to sell rich people tickets to space aboard their vehicles, which, in turn, will help to fund other ventures. The company, for instance, also seeks to construct a 300-foot rocket that can fire satellites into space so they can orbit the Earth.