Star Trek’s William Shatner got quite emotional after becoming the oldest person to have ever visited space. Speaking to CNN after he landed, the science fiction star admitted that his trip to the cosmos had had a profound impact on him.
“Everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to see this. It’s extraordinary,” he said. “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.”
“What [Jeff Bezos has] given me is the most profound experience I can imagine,” Shatner 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.” Shatner’s trip into space was brief, the whole thing lasted just ten minutes, but it’s lovely to hear that after a life spent pretending to go “where no man has gone before,” the trip meant so much to him.
Bezos reportedly invited Shatner to take a trip to space on the Blue Origin rocket because he’s such a massive Trekie. The trip was initially set to take place earlier this week, but it had to be delayed because of adverse weather conditions.
Once the weather cleared, though, Shatner and his fellow passengers Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers, Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries were cleared for launch and set off for the stars. The crew experienced about three minutes of weightlessness during the flight before their capsule began its descent and touched down in Texas.
Shatner admitted ahead of the launch to being terrified about making the launch. “I’m terrified. I’m Captain Kirk, and I’m terrified. I’m not really terrified, yes I am,” he admitted at Comic-Con last week. “It comes and goes like a summer cold. I’m planning on putting my nose against the window, and my only hope is I won’t see someone else looking back.”