Star Trek alum William Shatner is now well and truly a rocket man.
On Twitter, Shatner -- known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise -- shared a photo of himself sporting his Blue Origin uniform ahead of his trip to space aboard a New Shepard rocket on Wednesday morning. Shatner is joined in the photo by the rest of the ship's crew: Audrey Powers, Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries. "Aren't we all adorbs!" Shatner wrote.
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos was among the crew of the first New Shepard flight to carry human passengers, which launched on July 20. Shatner is the guest of honor on this new mission, dubbed NS18, with the rocket carrying the 90-year-old actor currently scheduled to take off tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 13 at 6:30 a.m. PT. The flight is scheduled to last for approximately 10 minutes and will reach no higher than 66 miles, which is considered the edge of outer space, just past the Kármán lin
Shatner originated the role of Captain Kirk on the original Star Trek television series, which ran on NBC for three seasons from 1966 to 1969, later voicing the character on Star Trek: The Animated Series, which aired on the network for two seasons from 1973 to 1974. He subsequently reprised his role as Kirk in the feature films Star Trek: The Motion Picture(1979), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) and Star Trek Generations (1994). The role of Kirk was eventually taken over by Chris Pine in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot films.
The sight of the man who played Kirk sporting a bright blue spacesuit is sure to be an odd one for longtime Star Trek fans, as the Starfleet captain is most commonly associated with the gold uniforms worn by command officers in Star Trek: The Original Series. Blue uniforms, meanwhile, were worn by science officers like Leonard Nimoy's Mr. Spock and DeForest Kelley's Dr. McCoy.
Still, while the idea of venturing to outer space is certainly an exciting one, Shatner has also admitted that he finds the upcoming trip terrifying. "I'm terrified. I'm Captain Kirk and I'm terrified," the actor recently said. "I'm not really terrified -- yes I am. It comes and goes like a summer cold. I'm planning on putting my nose against the window [while in space] and my only hope is I won't see someone else looking back."
Comments