{"id":17473,"date":"2021-10-12T20:43:53","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T12:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/how-to-watch-william-shatner-beam-up-to-suborbital-space-on-blue-origins-rocket\/"},"modified":"2021-10-12T20:43:53","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T12:43:53","slug":"how-to-watch-william-shatner-beam-up-to-suborbital-space-on-blue-origins-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/how-to-watch-william-shatner-beam-up-to-suborbital-space-on-blue-origins-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"How to watch William Shatner beam up to suborbital space on Blue Origin\u2019s rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_648032\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-648032\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-648032\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211012-bezos-shatner2-630x359.jpg\" alt=\"William Shatner and Jeff Bezos\" width=\"630\" height=\"359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211012-bezos-shatner2-630x359.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211012-bezos-shatner2-1260x718.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211012-bezos-shatner2-768x438.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211012-bezos-shatner2-1536x876.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/211012-bezos-shatner2.jpg 1726w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-648032\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Star Trek captain William Shatner gets tips from Jeff Bezos during a rehearsal for a suborbital space trip in Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard crew capsule. (Blue Origin via Instagram)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>More than a half-century after William Shatner first played a starship captain roaming the galaxy in \u201cStar Trek,\u201d he\u2019s getting a real-life ride to the edge of space \u2014 and you can watch the whole episode on real-life communicators, thanks to internet links that didn\u2019t exist when the original TV series was made.<\/p>\n<p>Shatner has had a long Hollywood career since then, including&nbsp;prime-time parts in TV series such as \u201cT.J. Hooker\u201d and \u201cBoston Legal.\u201d It\u2019s been 28 years since he\u2019s starred in a Star Trek movie&nbsp; But if nothing else, the seasoned actor knows how to milk his signature role.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt looks like there\u2019s a great deal of curiosity about this fictional character \u2014 Captain Kirk \u2014 going into space,\u201d Shatner said in a video released today by Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture. \u201cSo let\u2019s go along with it and enjoy the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If all goes according to plan, Shatner and three shipmates will enjoy their ride in Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital spaceship at 9 a.m. CT (7 a.m. PT) Wednesday, at the company\u2019s Launch Site One in West Texas. Blue Origin is streaming coverage of the countdown via its website and on YouTube.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Replay: New Shepard Mission NS-18 Webcast\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uEhdlIor-do?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Shatner is clearly the star of the show: At the age of 90, he\u2019s due to become the world\u2019s oldest spaceflier. That would rewrite a record that was set by 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk during Blue Origin\u2019s first-ever crewed spaceflight in July.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s also arguably the highest-profile celebrity to go to space so far \u2014 eclipsing Jeff Bezos, who was one of Funk\u2019s crewmates, as well as Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, who went on his own suborbital space trip just before Bezos did.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that Shatner is a seasoned actor has made for delicious sound bites, like the quip he delivered during a ride with his crewmates: \u201cI\u2019m so ready, I\u2019m thinking of jumping out of the capsule at apogee. That\u2019s how ready I am.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The other three spacefliers say they\u2019re ready as well.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer and venture capitalist who co-founded Planet Labs. And there\u2019s Glen de Vries \u2014 who was the co-founder of Medidata Solutions, a widely used clinical research platform, and is now an executive at Dassault Systems. Both men are paying undisclosed fares for their flight. The fourth crew member is Audrey Powers, Blue Origin\u2019s vice president of New Shepard mission and flight operations. Like Shatner, Powers is flying for free.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/cboshuizen\/status\/1447937333421035520<\/p>\n<p>This week\u2019s flight, which is the 18th outing for a New Shepard craft (counting uncrewed test flights), will follow the pattern set by July\u2019s first human flight: The hydrogen-fueled booster will push the crew capsule past the 100-kilometer (62-mile) space boundary, and then separate to make an autonomous landing. At the top of their ride, the four fliers will tumble about during a few minutes of weightlessness and get a picture-window view of the curving Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The roughly 11-minute-long flight finishes up with a parachute-aided touchdown in the Texas desert, not far from the launch pad. An hour or two after landing, Shatner and the newly minted spacefliers are expected to talk about their experience at a news briefing \u2014 and get their custom-made Blue Origin astronaut pins.<\/p>\n<p>After July\u2019s flight, Bezos said Blue Origin had racked up nearly $100 million in private sales for future suborbital spaceflights, and a third crewed flight is expected before the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Although Shatner\u2019s space trek is sure to rate an entry in the space history books, it\u2019s worth noting that he\u2019s not the first professional actor to go into space. That distinction belongs to Russian actress Yulia Peresild, who\u2019s been on the International Space Station for the past week along with producer-director Klim Shipenko to film scenes for a space-themed thriller titled \u201cVyzov,\u201d or \u201cChallenge.\u201d Peresild, Shipenko and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy are due to return to Earth this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>When Shatner was asked about the Russian project on Fox Business, he gave a classic Hollywood reply.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe entertainment industry wants to dramatize what\u2019s going on, because what is going on, our liftoff and weightlessness and return to Earth, is very dramatic and filled with a certain amount of possibilities,\u201d he said. \u201cDifferent outcomes are possible. And to record this, and to dramatize it and to speak about it is very important. So it doesn\u2019t matter which language it\u2019s in \u2014 except that there are more people who speak English than speak Russian.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Countdown schedule:<\/h4>\n<p><em>Times are approximate, with current launch time at 9 a.m. CT (7 a.m. PT). For schedule updates, check Blue Origin\u2019s Twitter account, @blueorigin.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>T-minus-7.5 hours:<\/strong> Rollout of spacecraft to launch pad.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-3 hours:<\/strong> Go-ahead for loading propellants.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-45 minutes:<\/strong> Go-ahead for seating spacefliers in capsule.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-35 minutes:<\/strong> Spacefliers start taking their seats.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-24 minutes:<\/strong> Crew capsule hatch closed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-15 minutes:<\/strong> Capsule enabled for emergency escape procedure.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-10 minutes:<\/strong> Launch team\u2019s poll for terminal count and liftoff.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Previously: Shatner\u2019s trek refocuses spotlight on Blue Origin<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Star Trek captain William Shatner gets tips from Jeff Bezos during a rehearsal for a suborbital space trip in Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard crew capsule. (Blue Origin via Instagram) More than a half-century after William Shatner first played a starship captain roaming the galaxy in \u201cStar Trek,\u201d he\u2019s getting a real-life ride to the edge [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,1250,493,4631,4402,4438],"class_list":["post-17473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-new-shepard","tag-space-tourism","tag-star-trek","tag-suborbital-spaceflight","tag-william-shatner"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}