Blue Origin will deliver a space hero to space
Jeff Bezos may be filthy rich to the 10th power, but there is some heart in the world’s second wealthiest man. The Princeton grad who founded Amazon and Blue Origin will really deliver one of his Space Trek heroes in William Shatner to outer space. Shatner, who was once cast as “Captain James T. Kirk” in Star Trek, will go from a space visionary and actor to a real-life space titan on the 13th of October.
The 90-year-old Canadian-born actor will be launched out of a rocket with three other well reputable individuals (Audrey Powers, Chris Boshuizen, and Glen de Vries) around 9 ET. According to BBC, Shatner will get the full experience as he will be able to see the curvature of Earth through the capsule’s big windows.
It seems to be more poetic with the Space TV hero Shatner going to the stars for “a very short amount of time” than what it was for the Blue Origin founder. All and every journalist was quick to point out how Bezos’s funds for the quick trip away from earth could have been used to solve critical earth problems (at large) instead. Nonetheless, the 57-year-old boldly went into space with his brother and looked back on “the Blue Planet”. And now, the billionaire who played a cameo as an alien Starfleet official in the movie “Star Trek and Beyond”, has pushed forth William Shatner to take the next leap for mankind.
Shatner is truly in awe of the exploration and opportunity he’s been awarded. The oldest person ever to travel to space said “I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle”. Shatner was getting anxious after the flight was delayed another day via weather, but he will soon put all of his anxiety and goosebumps behind.
Paul Levinson, who is a professor of media studies at Fordham University, has a positive reflection on the Blue Origin liftoff. Levinson stated there was a strong lack of interest in space exploration since the U.S. landed astronauts on the moon in 1972. Levinson stated that “Space flights like this one with William Shatner definitely brings some wonder, not just to the baby boomers who grew up watching Kirk”.
It is sincerely true — Captain Kirk will soon be launched into the stars — just one last time.