Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

William Shatner (who is 90 years old!!!) is scheduled to ride Blue Origin's new shepherd rocket into suborbital space this October. The flight will make him the oldest person to fly in space.

https://www.geekwire.com/2021/beam-tmz-s...pace-trip/

He doesn't look a day over 70! Beam me up Scotty!

He was predestined to make it to 90 and beyond. Just like Stan Lee, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, etc.

How do Ashkenazi Jews live so long, despite bad eating habits?
https://www.jpost.com/Health-and-Science...ing-habits

Captain Kirk's trip to space is tentatively set for Tuesday Oct 12 at 13:30 UTC, 6:30 AM PDT and 9:30 AM EDT.

Somewhere Spock is looking skeptical and muttering "illogical!"

https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/6842

Captain Kirk's flight has been pushed back a day until Wednesday October 13, because of a weather front passing through.

Space: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!

https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/14...2345488395

Well, Captain Kirk has been to space and is safely back.

Replay of the Blue Origin livestream here. (There are lots of holds, so you might want to skip ahead.)

After they came out of the capsule after the flight, William Shatner was all choked up talking to Jeff Bezos, very emotional. He was struck by how quickly the blue sky goes away as they ascend and then there's black void up above and all the beautiful blue of home down below. Shatner says he hopes he retains the feelings he has now for the rest of his life and doesn't want to ever lose them. He says the experience was like nothing he ever experienced before. (And this from a guy who has been all over the galaxy at warp speed!)

I liked Shatner’s description of how the colour changed from predominately blue to blackness of space. No report of seeing goblins ripping rocket apart(Twilight Zone fans know what I’m talking about). Looks good for 90.

Bill waxes existential after the flight. At 90 he must think alot about what dying is.

"You're looking into blackness, into black ugliness. And 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. Is that death? Is that the way death is?"

Blue Origin astronaut who flew with William Shatner dies in plane crash
https://spacenews.com/blue-origin-astron...ane-crash/

INTRO: A biomedical entrepreneur who flew on Blue Origin’s second crewed suborbital spaceflight died in a plane crash Nov. 11.

Glen de Vries was one of two people on a Cessna 172 aircraft that crashed in New Jersey Nov. 11. New Jersey State Police confirmed Nov. 12 that both de Vries and Thomas Fischer, the other person on the plane, died in the crash. It wasn’t clear who was at the controls of the plane; de Vries was an instrument-rated private pilot while Fischer was a flight instructor.

De Vries was one of the four people on Blue Origin’s NS-18 flight Oct. 13, the second time the suborbital vehicle carried people. He was joined by the flight by actor William Shatner, Planet co-founder Chris Boshuizen and Audrey Powers, a Blue Origin vice president.

“We are devastated to hear of the sudden passing of Glen de Vries,” Blue Origin said in a Nov. 12 tweet. “He brought so much life and energy to the entire Blue Origin team and to his fellow crewmates. His passion for aviation, his charitable work, and his dedication to his craft will long be revered and admired.” (MORE - details)