William Shatner goes to space on Blue Origin mission

By Jackie Wattles, Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes, Melissa Mahtani and Veronica Rocha, CNN

Updated 6:31 PM ET, Wed October 13, 2021
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11:38 a.m. ET, October 13, 2021

"Everybody in the world needs to do this," Shatner says after spaceflight

From CNN's Adrienne Vogt

Actor William Shatner, who became the oldest person to travel to space at age 90, told Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos that his spaceflight was "unbelievable."

"Everybody in this world needs to do this," Shatner said after landing back on Earth and exiting the capsule.

"To see the blue color whip by you, and now you're staring into blackness, that's the thing," he said.

He called the sky a "comforter of blue that we have around us."

"You look down, there's the blue down there and the black up there ... there is Mother Earth and comfort, and there is, is there death? I don't know, but is that death? Is that the way death is? ... It was so moving; this experience, it was something unbelievable," he said while the crew celebrated behind him.

11:38 a.m. ET, October 13, 2021

"I’m overwhelmed," Shatner says after 11-minute trip into space 

Actor William Shatner, best known for playing Captain Kirk on "Star Trek," described his journey into space as overwhelming and something everybody should experience.

“I’m overwhelmed. I had no idea. We were talking earlier, yeah, it’s going to be different – whatever that phrase is that you have a different view of things, it doesn’t begin to explain, to describe what, for me," he said upon exiting his Blue Origin flight.

Shatner made history today, becoming the oldest person to travel to space at age 90.

"It would be so important for everybody to have that experience through one means or another," he continued.

"Maybe you could put it on 3D and wear the goggles to have that experience,” Shatner suggested to Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.

11:36 a.m. ET, October 13, 2021

Blue Origin passengers given flight wings from Jeff Bezos

William Shatner, who at 90 years old just became the oldest person to travel to space, received flight wings from Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos alongside the three other passengers.

The wings are from Blue Origin and are not official wings from the Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Astronaut Wings Program.

Bezos in July went to the edge of space with the first-ever crewed mission for Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital space tourism rocket.

12:00 p.m. ET, October 13, 2021

An emotional William Shatner says "I hope I can maintain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it."

Back on Earth, William Shatner grew emotional describing his experience launching into space

"I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. It's extraordinary, extraordinary. I hope I can maintain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it. It's so much larger than me and life."

Speaking to Jeff Bezos after the Blue Origin flight, the 90-year-old actor told him: "What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine." 

He continued: "It hasn't got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death." 

11:14 a.m. ET, October 13, 2021

William Shatner and crew emerge from Blue Origin capsule after space flight

From CNN's Aditi Sangal

(Blue Origin)
(Blue Origin)

After William Shatner and the rest of the crew landed back on Earth, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos opened the capsule hatch and said, "Hello astronauts, welcome to Earth!"

Audrey Powers was the first to emerge out of the capsule, followed by Shatner.

Bezos welcomed the crew members back in his Blue Origin space suit along with the members' families.

11:21 a.m. ET, October 13, 2021

William Shatner makes history as oldest person to go to space

From CNN's Jackie Wattles

Ninety-year-old William Shatner, who gained fame portraying Captain Kirk on the original "Star Trek," just hitched a ride aboard a suborbital spacecraft that grazed the edge of outer space before parachuting to a landing, making Shatner the oldest person ever to travel to space.

Shatner took off aboard a New Shepard spacecraft — the one developed by Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, and the same vehicle that took Bezos himself to space this summer — just before 10:50 a.m. ET from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site.

Bezos, a lifelong "Star Trek" fan, flew Shatner as a comped guest. With him were three crewmates: Chris Boshuizen, a co-founder of satellite company Planet Labs, and software executive Glen de Vries, who are both paying customers, and Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations.

The trip took just 10 minutes from takeoff to landing. The crew experienced about three minutes of weightlessness at the top of their flight path before their capsule deployed parachutes to slow their descent and touched back down near their Texas launch site.

Shanter's new record as the oldest person to fly to space one-ups the record set just three months ago by 82-year-old Wally Funk, who was previously denied the opportunity to fly by NASA in the 1960s before she joined Bezos on his July flight.

11:22 a.m. ET, October 13, 2021

Capsule carrying crew returns to Earth

The capsule carrying the crew aboard the Blue Origin flight has returned and just landed on Earth.

Actor William Shatner could be heard saying, "That was unlike anything they described."

Shatner became the oldest person to travel to space.

11:02 a.m. ET, October 13, 2021

Shatner tweeted an Isaac Newton quote as he arrived in space

William Shatner's official Twitter account sent out a quote from Sir Isaac Newton as the 90-year-old crossed into space.

The tweet read: "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore,  diverting myself in now & then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

See the tweet:

11:06 a.m. ET, October 13, 2021

The booster has landed

(Blue Origin)
(Blue Origin)

The New Shepard's booster has now landed. We're still waiting for the capsule, carrying the crew, to land.