William Shatner Is Now Truly a Rocket Man

William Shatner on Wednesday became the oldest person to go to space. After a couple of delays, CNN reports the 90-year-old blasted off from a West Texas launch site on an 11-minute up-and-down flight (with four of those minutes being weightless). He rode on Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule, in what was the company's second crewed launch. CNN reports Jeff Bezos himself shut the door to the capsule after everyone was loaded in.

Shatner, who first played Captain Kirk on Star Trek 55 years ago, is among a party of four: Chris Boshuizen of Earth-observation company Planet Labs, microbiologist Glen de Vries, and Blue Origin's Audrey Powers joined him. He told CBS Mornings in advance of the flight, "I want to see space. I want to see the Earth. I want to see what we need to do to save Earth." As the capsule landed, Shatner could reportedly be heard saying, "That was unlike anything they described." (More William Shatner stories.)