After decades of playing Captain Kirk, William Shatner will be traveling to outer space for the first time.
The Hollywood star, best known for playing Captain James T. Kirk in "Star Trek," will be on Blue Origin's next rocket launch on October 12, the space company confirmed on Monday. TMZ first reported in September Shatner's plans to fly into space with Blue Origin, but now a date has been set.
It will be the company's second space-tourism launch since its founder Jeff Bezos traveled into space in July. The journey will take about 11 minutes and will carry the New Shepard's four passengers past the Kármán Line, an internationally-recognized boundary that defines outer space.
90-year-old Shatner will become the oldest person to travel into space, after Blue Origin broke the record a few months earlier when 82-year-old Wally Funk joined Bezos, the billionaire's brother Mark Bezos, and 19-year-old Oliver Daemen in the New Shepard capsule.
Blue Origin said Shatner will be joined by Audrey Powers, the space venture's vice president of mission and flight operations. Last week, Blue Origin announced the first two of the members of the group of amateur astronauts, naming Chris Boshuizen, an Australian former NASA engineer, and Glen de Vries, the founder of clinical research platform Medidata Solutions.
Shatner first took on the role of Captain James T. Kirk in 1966 — his TV character spawned seven movies in which Shatner reprised his role as the captain of the USS Enterprise.
"I've heard about space for a long time now," Shatner said in the space company's press release. "I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle."
Blue Origin did not respond to requests about how much the amateur astronauts paid for their seats, though the company auctioned a ticket off last year for as much as $28 million.
The flight follows an open letter that was released last week from a group identifying itself as 21 former and current Blue Origin employees. The letter accused Blue Origin and Bezos of sacrificing safety in an effort to win the billionaire space race against Elon Musk and Richard Branson earlier this year. At the time, the Federal Aviation Administration told Insider it was aware of the letter and was reviewing the claims.
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