William Shatner becomes oldest person to travel to space with Blue Origin rocket

William Shatner, the 90-year-old veteran of countless imaginary space voyages playing Star Trek's Captain Kirk, and three other passengers returned safely from a brief trip space excursion on Wednesday. Actor best known as heroic Captain James T Kirk in “Star Trek,” became the oldest person ever to travel to space.

The latest excursion was over the West Texas desert aboard a rocket built by Blue Origin for space tourists which over the course of 10 minutes and 17 seconds took off atop a hydrogen-fuelled rocket with Shatner and three crewmates. They later climbed to the edge of space 65.8 miles up and enjoyed three to four minutes of weightlessness. They witnessed spectacular views of Earth, before plunging back to a gentle parachute-assisted touchdown.

Within minutes, Bezos and Blue Origin recovery crews were on the scene to open the spacecraft's hatch and welcome Shatner, Australian entrepreneur Chris Boshuizen, microbiologist Glen de Vries and Blue Origin executive Audrey Powers back to Earth.

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