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Blue Origin delays William Shatner's space flight

Entertainment | Celebrities

Blue Origin delays William Shatner's space flight

By Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 07: William Shatner speaks at the William Shatner Spotlight panel during Day 1 of New York Comic Con 2021 at Jacob Javits Center on October 07, 2021 in New York City. Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for ReedPop/AFP (Photo by Bennett Raglin / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Washington - Blue Origin announced Sunday it was delaying an upcoming flight set to carry actor William Shatner to space due to anticipated winds.

Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in the cult classic TV series "Star Trek," is due to become the first member of the iconic show's cast to journey to the final frontier as a guest aboard a Blue Origin suborbital rocket.

His history-making flight was scheduled for October 12.

But "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," a spokeswoman said in a statement.

The new flight is scheduled for 8:30 am (1330 GMT).

Shatner, 90, will be the oldest person ever to go to space.

His trip will take him and the NS-18 rocket crew just beyond the Karman line, 62 miles (100 kilometers) high, where they will experience four minutes of weightlessness and gaze out at the curvature of the planet.

Blue Origin's decision to invite one of the most recognizable galaxy-faring characters from science fiction for its second crewed flight has helped maintain excitement around the nascent space tourism sector. For fans, the 10-minute hop from a West Texas base back to Earth will be a fitting coda for a pop culture phenomenon that inspired generations of astronauts.

Related Tags

blue origin WILLIAM SHATNER Star Trek

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