90-Year-Old Star Trek Captain Becomes Oldest Astronaut Ever

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] William Shatner, a 90-year-old veteran actor who played a spaceship captain in the 1960s drama 'Star Trek,' has become the oldest astronaut in the history of space exploration.

On the 13th (local time), according to major foreign media including CNN in the United States, Blue Origin, a U.S. space company led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, successfully launched and safely returned the 'New Shepard' rocket spacecraft carrying Shatner from the launch site in Van Horn, Texas.

This launch came three months after Bezos's first space tourism flight on July 20, marking Blue Origin's second space tourism flight for the general public.

After completing his space tour, Shatner said, "It was an unbelievable and the most profound experience I could imagine," and was so moved that he briefly welled up with tears. Regarding Shatner's space journey, the Associated Press described it as "a convergence of science fiction and real science."

This space trip involved crossing the Karman line at an altitude of 100 km, known as the boundary between Earth and space, experiencing about three minutes of microgravity with almost no gravity, and returning to Earth. The flight followed the same route as the first space tourism flight. The launch time was 10:49 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, and the space journey lasted 10 minutes and 17 seconds.

Accompanying Shatner on the space trip were former NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen, medical industry entrepreneur Glen de Vries, and Blue Origin Vice President Audrey Powers.

Although Shatner was a free passenger, Blue Origin did not disclose how much Boshuizen and de Vries paid for this space trip, according to foreign media reports.

Before the launch, Blue Origin conveyed the significance of Shatner's space journey through a live broadcast, stating that many people were drawn to the space industry inspired by dramas like Star Trek. Bezos is a passionate fan of Star Trek and appeared in the 2016 film 'Star Trek Beyond.'

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.