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Entertainment

Why Celebrities Disapprove of William Shatner’s Blue Origin Space Ride

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“Star Trek” actor William Shatner describes G Forces as he speaks to the press at the New Shepard rocket landing pad on October 13, 2021, in the West Texas region, 25 miles (40kms) north of Van Horn. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Star Trek star William Shatner made history Wednesday, becoming the oldest person to travel to space aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket. The 90-year-old actor, along with three Blue Origin employees, blasted off from a launch pad in west Texas to 66 miles in the sky in a space ride that lasted about ten minutes.

Shatner’s accomplishment has drawn unexpected criticism from his celebrity circle, from Hollywood to Buckingham Palace.

In an interview with BBC aired Thursday, Prince William said he has “absolutely no interest” in going to space, largely because there’s a “fundamental question” over the carbon cost of space flights.

“We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live,” the Duke of Cambridge told BBC Newscast’s Adam Fleming when asked what he thought of the ongoing billionaire space race and the hype of space tourism.

“It really is quite crucial to be focusing on this [planet] rather than giving up and heading out into space to try and think of solutions for the future,” the duke added.

Prince William gave the interview ahead of the first Earthshot Prize, named in reference to the “moonshot” ambition of 1960s America. The prize is set up to reward solutions to climate change and environmental issues.

Shatner also got roasted by his Star Trek co-star George Takei, a longtime foe, who called his former on-screen captain an “unfit guinea pig” for space tourism.

“He’s boldly going where other people have gone before,” Takei, 84, told Page Six on Wednesday after the Blue Origin crew landed. “So 90 years old is going to show a great deal more on the wear and tear on the human body, so he’ll be a good specimen to study. Although he’s not the fittest specimen of 90 years old, so he’ll be a specimen that’s unfit!”

Shatner shot back right away, Page Six reported, claiming that “there’s a psychosis there … There must be something else inside George that is festering, and it makes him unhappy that he takes it out on me…I feel nothing but pity for him.”

He also responded to Prince William’s disapproval of space tourism in an interview with Entertainment Tonight on Thursday, saying that the prince “got the wrong idea.”

“The idea here is not to go, ‘Yeah, look at me. I’m in space,’” Shatner said. “The prince is missing the point. The point is these are the baby steps to show people [that] it’s very practical. You can send somebody like me up into space.”

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Business

Jeff Bezos Interrupted William Shatner’s Profound Speech To Spray Champagne

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William Shatner visited space Wednesday in a brief trip he called “the most profound experience I can imagine.”

In an emotional conversation with Blue Origin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos afterward, he sought to translate raw emotion into words and reflect on what had just occurred.

But it seems Shatner’s post-flight demeanor varied wildly from the expectations of Bezos, whose first instinct was not to join Shatner in a somber reflection on the significance of space ― but to cut him off mid-thought so he could drench some wealthy people in Champagne:

“Give me a Champagne bottle, c’mere. I want one,” Bezos says in a video of the moment, gesturing to a woman on the periphery who gamely brings one over.

“I want to hear this,” he adds while talking over Shatner, before offering him the open bottle: “Here, you want a little of this?”

Shatner scratches his head and gazes at the ground, declining Bezos’ offer. Bezos then gives the bottle a hearty shake and proceeds to spray it all over amid celebratory screams.

The moment struck a chord on Twitter:

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Entertainment

William Shatner’s Space Interview With CNN’s Anderson Cooper Takes A Filthy Turn

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Cooper repeatedly cracked up as Shatner, 90, peppered their conversation about his seat on the next mission from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin with jokes and sarcastic zingers.

Shatner, aka Captain Kirk on “Star Trek,” joked about being “ravaged by time,” ribbed Cooper about the sci-fi show being “all pretend” and busted out some innuendoes about the phallic shape of the Blue Origin rocket.

“We’re inseminating the space program,” Shatner quipped. “It certainly does look … when they say insertion, do they really mean insertion?”

Shatner talked about pressing his nose “against the plastic window” on the flight, saying he didn’t want to see “somebody else out there looking back at me.”

And when asked about his training, Shatner deadpanned that he was “running miles and miles” and “taking deep breaths, the best training is to fill my lungs and let the air go out.”

Watch the full interview here:

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Business

William Shatner’s Blue Origin launch on New Shepard: Live updates

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William Shatner is weighing in on his upcoming launch into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket next week, and apparently the 90-year-old Trek actor is thrilled. 

“We talk about space and what weightless conditions are, the enormity of the universe and the absolute jewel of a little thing we call the Earth by comparison,” Shatner told NBC’s Today Show this morning. “I’m going to feel that with the same enormity that I felt this electrical storm last night.”

You can watch the interview above, courtesy of the Today Show. 

Shatner will launch on a suborbital flight aboard New Shepard on Oct. 12 from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One near Van Horn, Texas. He will fly with three other passengers, including two paying customers for Blue Origin. The flight will make Shatner the oldest person to fly in space.

William Shatner to launch on Blue Origin’s New Shepard

Actor William Shatner, at left, and Blue Origin Vice President of Mission & Flight Operations, at right, will fill the final two seats on the Oct. 12, 2021, New Shepard crewed flight. (Image credit: Blue Origin)

Captain Kirk is headed to space.

William Shatner, the 90-year-old actor who starred as Captain Kirk on “Star Trek: The Original Series,” will launch on a suborbital spaceflight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft on Oct. 12, 2021, the company announced today (Oct. 4). 

Shatner, whose flight was hinted at last month by TMZ, is officially launching on Blue Origin’s second crewed spaceflight. Liftoff is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas near the town of Van Horn. He will become the oldest person ever to fly in space with the mission.

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Joining Shatner on New Shepard will be: Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s vice president of missions and flight operations; Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of Earth observation company Planet Labs, and Glen de Vries, vice chair for life sciences and healthcare at French software company Dassault Systèmes. Shatner and Powers were announced as crewmembers today, while Boshuizen and de Vries were announced on Sept. 27.

Related: Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best

Chris Boshuizen (left) and Glen de Vries (right) are two of the four space tourists scheduled to fly on Blue Origin’s second crewed flight on Oct. 12. 2021 (Image credit: Blue Origin)

The upcoming flight comes less than three months after Blue Origin’s First Human Flight mission, which launched Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, 82-year-old Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen on a suborbital flight on July 20. That mission set four Guinness World Records for the oldest person to fly in space (Funk), the youngest person to fly in space (Daemen), the first siblings to launch into space together and the first paying passenger to launch into space (Daemen, whose father paid for the trip), according to a GWR statement on Friday (Oct. 1). 

Shatner’s flight follows the 55th anniversary of “Star Trek,” which debuted on TV on Sept. 8, 1966, and on the heels of the actor’s latest album “Bill,” an autobiographical collection of spoken word pieces.

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We’ll be posting updates of Shatner’s launch into space, landing and post-flight celebrations here throughout the mission, so be sure to check back for updates. In the meantime, here’s a recap of Blue Origin’s First Human Flight mission.



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