William Shatner's Space Flight Hit With Delay
Star Trek star William Shatner's trip into space aboard one of the Blue Origin rockets has been delayed. On Sunday, Blue Origin announced that the flight, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday, October 12, has been delayed to Wednesday, October 13 due to anticipated wind conditions. The flight is set to take off from the Blue Origin Launch Site One in Texas at 8:30 a.m. on the new date.
"Due to forecasted winds on Tuesday, October 12, Blue Origin's mission operations team has made the decision to delay the launch of NS-18 and is now targeting Wednesday, October 13," a statement from a Blue Origin spokeswoman read (via Variety).
Shatner's spot onboard the New Shepard NS-18 launch was confirmed earlier this month. Shatner will be joined on the flight by Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's Vice President of Mission & Flight Operations, and the ship's crew, Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries. Shatner had previously expressed some interest in space travel, though Shatner did recently express some worries and fears about going to space, revealing during his New York Comic Con spotlight panel that he's terrified.
"I don't want to be the oldest guy to go into space," Shatner said. "The phrase they use a lot of is 'our best guess is that...' I'm going up in a rocket and our best guess is it should be fine!"
He added, "I'm terrified. I'm Captain Kirk and I'm terrified. I'm not really terrified-yes I am. It comes and goes like a summer cold. I'm planning on putting my nose against the window (while in space) and my only hope is I won't see someone else looking back."
"My friend Jason Erhlick came to me about a year and a half ago and he said he was seeing these rockets with people going into space. And, wouldn't it be something if Captain Kirk went up there?" Shatner revealed. "And I said, 'Jason, for God's sake, man. Nobody cares if Captain Kirk goes to space. It was 55 years ago, man. But I'm doing well, maybe I should go up to space?"
"I'm so proud and humbled to fly on behalf of Team Blue, and I'm excited to continue writing Blue's human spaceflight history," Powers previously said in a statement. "I was part of the amazing effort we assembled for New Shepard's Human Flight Certification Review, a years-long initiative completed in July 2021. As an engineer and lawyer with more than two decades of experience in the aerospace industry, I have great confidence in our New Shepard team and the vehicle we've developed."
The upcoming flight will be Blue Origin's second manned flight to space after the July 20 mission which included founder Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and Blue Origin's first customer Oliver Daemen.
Shatner's Blue Origin flight is now scheduled for Wednesday, October 13th.