Captain Kirk has officially visited outer space for real.
William Shatner, the star behind the beloved Star Trek character, finally made his own voyage to the final frontier on Wednesday, Oct. 13 after being postponed a day as a result of weather conditions. After lifting off near Van Horn, Texas minutes before 11 a.m., Blue Origin's New Shepard accomplished the company's second successful crewed mission to space, carrying Shatner, Planet Labs co-founder Chris Boshuizen, Medidata Solutions co-founder Glen de Vries and Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers.
It was not only a milestone for Shatner, but also a history-making one as the actor is the oldest person to reach space at 90 years old. While it's an undeniably special moment, it doesn't sound like Shatner has any interest in relocating. "The thing I really want to do," he previously told Today, "is come back down."
In a matter of just over 10 minutes, the crew returned back to Earth in their capsule and Shatner got his wish.
Meanwhile, this marks the second trip to space for Amazon's Jeff Bezos, who founded Blue Origin more than 20 years ago. He and brother Mark Bezos were on board when New Shepard 4 took its first crewed sub-orbital spaceflight on July 20. They were joined by then-18-year-old Oliver Daemen, now the youngest person to travel to space, and 82-year-old astronaut Wally Funk.
Now, Shatner can officially join them in adding astronaut to his resume. "I've always been consumed with curiosity," he said in a Blue Origin video, "and it's the adventure that I feel so good doing."