When William Shatner blasts into space on one of Jeff Bezos’ rockets on Wednesday, the Star Trek star will be fulfilling a lifelong dream of reaching the final frontier.
By his own admission, the 90-year-old actor is “terrified” at the prospect, but for many would-be civilian astronauts, the foray signals a new era of possibility for space travel.
If all goes to plan, Mr Shatner will become the oldest person to go to space when he blasts off from west Texas with Mr Bezos’ space travel company Blue Origin.
The flight, originally scheduled for Tuesday, has been delayed by a day due to “high winds”, adding to the sense of fear and trepidation ahead of the pensioner’s launch.
“Due to forecasted winds on Tuesday, October 12, Blue Origin’s mission operations team has made the decision to delay the launch of NS-18 and is now targeting Wednesday, October 13,” the company said in a statement.
He will be joined by Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s vice president, a Nasa engineer and two paying space tourists for the fully-automated flight and travel more than 66 miles above earth.
