“Captain Kirk” Ready To Head To Space

Actor William Shatner, best known for his role as space explorer Captain James T. Kirk in the television series “Star Trek,” announced Monday (4/10) that he will be taking a trip into space later this month. Shatner, who is 90 years old, will launch on a Blue Origin rocket on October 12. Blue Origin is a space travel company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. If successful, Shatner will become the oldest person to ever travel to space. He will join three others on Blue Origin’s second quest to explore outer space. Bezos was one of the first Blue Origin passengers in July. The flight is expected to last about 10 minutes and reach an altitude of 106 kilometers. “I’ve been hearing about space for a long time. I’ll go see it for myself. What a miracle,” Shatner said in a statement. In a tweet, Shatner wrote “so now I can say yeah right, I’m the rocket-man!” He refers to a song lyric by the famous singer and songwriter Elton John. [em/lt]