The crew of Wednesday’s flight in their Blue Origin flightsuits.
Beam him up, Bezos.
William Shatner, the actor famous for playing Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series, is going into space at the age of 90. The launch is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 13, at 10 a.m. EST after weather delays earlier this week pushed the flight back a day.
The rest of the crew includes Audrey Powers, the vice president of mission and flight operations for Blue Origin; Chris Boshuizen, the co-founder of the nanosatellite firm Planet Labs; and Glen de Vries, the co-founder of Medidata, a life sciences software company.
The crew will be launching from West Texas in one of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rockets.
With the flight, Shatner will become the oldest person to fly in space, breaking a record that was set less than three months ago by Wally Funk on Blue Origin’s first crewed flight on July 20.The launch on Wednesday is only the second crewed launch from Blue Origin. It comes as the company is under increased scrutiny for its working culture. On Oct. 11, The Washington Post published an article in which former employees reported issues with the company’s culture and leadership, including sexism, that have hurt its performance. A Blue Origin executive told the Post the company takes “all claims seriously” and does not tolerate discrimination or harassment.
The company is also falling behind SpaceX in the race to secure lucrative government contracts. In April, it lost out to Elon Musk’s firm on a $2.9 billion contract to build NASA’s next crewed lunar lander.
How to watch
Starting about 90 minutes before the launch, Blue Origin will go live with its coverage, The broadcast will include the astronauts loading into the spacecraft before they take to the cosmos. The broadcast will be available for free on the company’s website and their YouTube channel.
