Photo: Santiago Felipe/Getty
William Shatneris considering a real-life trip to space.
The 90-year-old actor — who previously played the iconic role of Captain Kirk onStar Trek— is in talks to travel to space in October aboard a civilian flight onJeff Bezos’Blue OriginNew Shepard rocket, “but it’s not a done deal yet,” a source tells PEOPLE.
“He’s almost certainly going but they’re still working out the finer points,” the insider adds. “It’s just not totally confirmed yet.”
The trip would make Shatner the oldest person to fly into outer space.
PerTMZ, which was first to report the intergalactic news, Shatner’s blast off will reportedly be filmed for a documentary.
A representative for Shatner and Blue Origin did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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(L-R) Oliver Daemen, Jeff Bezos, Wally Funk, and Mark Bezos.Joe Raedle/Getty
The mission was thefirst space flight with humans on boardfor Blue Origin, the aerospace manufacturing and spaceflight company the billionaire founded in 2000.
According to theofficial website, the New Shepard seats six astronauts, and since the ship is “fully autonomous,” there is no pilot, making everyone onboard a passenger. The reusable vehicle takes 11-minute flights into space, “designed to take astronauts and research payloads past the Kármán line — the internationally recognized boundary of space.”
Bezos' flight came just nine days after fellow billionaireSir Richard Bransontook his first trip to spaceaboard the VSS Unity spacecraft, Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed flight test. Branson, 71, took off alongside five others from Sierra County, New Mexico on an hour-long journey to and from suborbital space on July 11.
If Shatner does indeed fly to space sometime next month for the minutes-long civilian flight, it is currently unknown who will join him on the expedition.
Charlotte Triggs
source: people.com
