Hollywood
actor William Shatner is set to become the oldest person to go into
space as he blasted off aboard the Blue Origin sub-orbital capsule.
The
90-year-old, who played Captain James T Kirk in the Star Trek films and
TV series, took off from the Texas desert with three other individuals.
Mr Shatner's trip on the rocket system - developed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos - should last about 10 minutes.
The Blue Origin craft launched at 09:50 local time (15:50 BST).
The
actor will get to experience a short period of weightlessness as he
climbs to a maximum altitude just above 100km (60 miles). He will also
be able to see the curvature of the Earth through the capsule's big
windows.
"There
is this mystique of being in space and that much closer to the stars
and being weightless," the Canadian star said before launch.
"I shall be entranced by the view of space. I want to look at that orb and appreciate its beauty and its tenacity."
Mr Shatner is joined on the flight by Audrey Powers, a Blue Origin vice
president; Chris Boshuizen, who co-founded the Earth-imaging satellite
company Planet; and Glen de Vries, an executive with the French
healthcare software corporation Dassault Systèmes.
They
have been given a couple of days' training, although there is nothing
really major for them to do during the flight other than enjoy it. The
rocket and capsule system, known as New Shepard, is fully automatic.
Blue
Origin flight director Nicholas Patrick said the quartet did however
need to know what to do in the unlikely event of an emergency, and to
recognise - and not be perturbed by - the normal bumps and noises of
spaceflight.
"The
third thing the training does is teach the crew how to behave in Zero
G; how to move around the cabin without bumping each other or kicking
each other; what handholds to use; the kinds of things they can expect
and their response to it," the British-born, former Nasa astronaut
explained.
This
will be only the second crewed outing for New Shepard. The first, on 20
July, carried Mr Bezos, his brother Mark, Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen;
and famed aviator Wally Funk.
Afterwards,
Ms Funk, being 82, was able to claim the record for the oldest person
in space - a title she will now relinquish to Mr Shatner, assuming his
mission passes without incident and he gets above Earth's atmosphere.
The
launch comes amid claims that Blue Origin has a toxic work culture and
failed to adhere to proper safety protocols. The mostly anonymous
accusations made by former and present employees have been strenuously
denied.
"That just hasn't been my experience at Blue," countered Audrey Powers, who is responsible for mission and flight operations.
"We're
exceedingly thorough, from the earliest days up through now as we've
started our human flights. Safety has always been our top priority."
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