Shatner breaks the age barrier, goes where no nonagenarian has gone before with Blue Origin rocket trip
(2021/10/13)
- Reference: 1634157190
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/10/13/shatner_space_flight/
- Source link:
Four travelers successfully flew to the edge of space and back on Blue Origin’s second commercial spaceflight including William Shatner, making the 90-year-old Star Trek actor the oldest person to leave Earth yet.
The nonagenarian was joined by Audrey Powers, VP of Blue Origin’s New Shepard flight operations, Dr Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Earth-monitoring startup Planet Labs, and Glen de Vries, vice-chair of life Sciences & Healthcare, at Dassault Systèmes.
Blue Origin’s capsule atop the New Shepard rocket launched near Van Horn, Texas, on Wednesday at 1449 UTC. The four-person crew was taken to the Kármán line, 100 kilometers or 330,000 feet above Earth’s mean sea level, a region where space officially begins. By 1459 UTC, they returned safely back on solid ground again. All in all, the [1]journey only took about 10 minutes and 17 seconds.
[2]
Tech billionaire and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos welcomed the space tourists back when the capsule landed. Shatner was particularly moved by his experience. “Everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to see this," he told Bezos, choking up. “It was unbelievable.”
[3]
[4]
He recounted his thoughts he had during the journey. “To see the blue color whip by! Now you’re staring at a blackness...That’s the thing, the covering of blue...this sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue we have around us...We say, oh that’s the blue sky and then you shoot through it all and then all of a sudden...you whip off the sheet...and you’re looking at a blackness - into black ugliness.”
Shatner continued, pointing downwards: “And you look down, and there’s your blue down there. It’s just...there is mother Earth, comfort.” Then pointing upwards, referring to space “and there is...is there death?” Bezos patted the actor’s back and nodded.
[5]Pretend starship captain to take trip in real space capsule
[6]Blue Origin employees complain of sexist culture that ignores safety concerns
[7]Virgin Galactic cleared to fly again after a spell on Federal Aviation Administration's naughty step
[8]SpaceX successfully sends four amateurs into orbit for three-day tour
You can watch the replay of the flight and Shatner’s teary exchange with Bezos below (skip to 2:46:20).
[9]Youtube Video
[10]
“This flight was another step forward in flying astronauts safely and often,” Blue Origin’s CEO Bob Smith said in a statement. “It’s an incredible team and we are just getting started.”
The company’s first commercial flight launched in July, earlier this year. Wally Funk, a member of the Mercury 13 group, Bezos brothers Jeff and Mark, and an 18-year-old student Oliver Daemen were the [11]first group to test New Shepard’s flight capabilities. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1448313544756371463
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YWdXITa6al6w-Dc40JrJPgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YWdXITa6al6w-Dc40JrJPgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YWdXITa6al6w-Dc40JrJPgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/04/blue_origin_shatner/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/01/blue_origin_sexism/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/30/virgin_galactic_faa/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/16/inspiration4_launch_success/
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEhdlIor-do
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YWdXITa6al6w-Dc40JrJPgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/20/new_shepard_crewed_flight/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The nonagenarian was joined by Audrey Powers, VP of Blue Origin’s New Shepard flight operations, Dr Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Earth-monitoring startup Planet Labs, and Glen de Vries, vice-chair of life Sciences & Healthcare, at Dassault Systèmes.
Blue Origin’s capsule atop the New Shepard rocket launched near Van Horn, Texas, on Wednesday at 1449 UTC. The four-person crew was taken to the Kármán line, 100 kilometers or 330,000 feet above Earth’s mean sea level, a region where space officially begins. By 1459 UTC, they returned safely back on solid ground again. All in all, the [1]journey only took about 10 minutes and 17 seconds.
[2]
Tech billionaire and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos welcomed the space tourists back when the capsule landed. Shatner was particularly moved by his experience. “Everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to see this," he told Bezos, choking up. “It was unbelievable.”
[3]
[4]
He recounted his thoughts he had during the journey. “To see the blue color whip by! Now you’re staring at a blackness...That’s the thing, the covering of blue...this sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue we have around us...We say, oh that’s the blue sky and then you shoot through it all and then all of a sudden...you whip off the sheet...and you’re looking at a blackness - into black ugliness.”
Shatner continued, pointing downwards: “And you look down, and there’s your blue down there. It’s just...there is mother Earth, comfort.” Then pointing upwards, referring to space “and there is...is there death?” Bezos patted the actor’s back and nodded.
[5]Pretend starship captain to take trip in real space capsule
[6]Blue Origin employees complain of sexist culture that ignores safety concerns
[7]Virgin Galactic cleared to fly again after a spell on Federal Aviation Administration's naughty step
[8]SpaceX successfully sends four amateurs into orbit for three-day tour
You can watch the replay of the flight and Shatner’s teary exchange with Bezos below (skip to 2:46:20).
[9]Youtube Video
[10]
“This flight was another step forward in flying astronauts safely and often,” Blue Origin’s CEO Bob Smith said in a statement. “It’s an incredible team and we are just getting started.”
The company’s first commercial flight launched in July, earlier this year. Wally Funk, a member of the Mercury 13 group, Bezos brothers Jeff and Mark, and an 18-year-old student Oliver Daemen were the [11]first group to test New Shepard’s flight capabilities. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1448313544756371463
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YWdXITa6al6w-Dc40JrJPgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YWdXITa6al6w-Dc40JrJPgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YWdXITa6al6w-Dc40JrJPgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/04/blue_origin_shatner/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/01/blue_origin_sexism/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/30/virgin_galactic_faa/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/16/inspiration4_launch_success/
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEhdlIor-do
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YWdXITa6al6w-Dc40JrJPgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/20/new_shepard_crewed_flight/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
NCC-1701
Doctor Tarr
Awesome. Quite surreal though. Now I need to know who he snogged and who he fought.
Re: NCC-1701
Robert Moore
> Awesome. Quite surreal though. Now I need to know who he snogged and who he fought.
The Gorn for both.
Re: NCC-1701
bombastic bob
don't forget [1]the leitmotif music...
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rl46Dpy-P4
Next time, an orbit?
Magani
Live long and prosper, Captain Kirk.
I was going to be mean and small-minded
Gene Cash
and say "out of all the cast why him?"
But what I really want to say is that I want Nimoy, Kelly, Doohan, to still be with us, and able to take a flight as well. Leonard Nimoy especially had a way with words, and I would have loved to hear what he would have thought.
People (in the US) say they remember where they were when they heard Kennedy was shot. I remember being in the restaurant for lunch when I saw that Nimoy had passed.
Re: I was going to be mean and small-minded
bombastic bob
if Walter (Koenig) or George (Takei) get a shot, they'll have to drive
A 10 minutes 17 second ride ...
jake
... in a billionaire's version of a little kiddie's bounce house.
This is news?
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
[1]My senses have been stripped....My hands can't feel to grip.....
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0hTtsqiFCc