Former Canadian actor and director William Shatner is all set to go on his first space mission in Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos'-owned private aerospace company Blue Origin. The liftoff is scheduled for 7.00 PM IST from the launch site today after it was postponed from Tuesday.
The 90-year-old Star Trek writer and actor will become the oldest person in history to fly into space.
The rocket named New Shepard NS-18 flight will blast off from outside the rural west Texas town of Van Horn on a journey to the edge of space.
“New Shepard is a go for launch! The mission team has completed the Flight Readiness Evaluation prior to #NS18. This is our final meeting with the engineers and Mission Control team to ensure all systems are a go for launch,” Blue Origin said.
Joining Shatner on the flight is Blue Origin Vice President Audrey Powers, former Nasa engineer Chris Boshuizen and Medidata CEO Glen de Vries. It comes less than three months after Jeff Bezos made the same 11-minute trip aboard the first-ever crewed New Shepard rocket.
(with inputs from sources)
