‘Extraordinary’: Star Trek actor Shatner moved to tears by space odyssey at 90
The Star Trek actor William Shatner said he was “overwhelmed” at becoming the oldest human in space, at the age of 90, after a brief but successful flight yesterday on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket ship.
The Canadian, who for four decades played Captain James Kirk, the fearless commander of the USS Enterprise, broke down in tears at the Texas landing site as he described the 11-minute flight to the private space company’s founder, the Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos.
“I hope I never recover from this,” Shatner said following his touchdown in the company of three civilian crewmates. I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened. It’s extraordinary, extraordinary.
“It’s so much larger than me and life. It hasn’t got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death.
“To see the blue colour whip by you, and now you’re staring into blackness … everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to see this.”
In a tweet Shatner programmed to post during his flight, he likened himself previously as “a boy playing on the seashore … whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me”.
This story is from the October 14, 2021 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the October 14, 2021 edition of The Guardian.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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