William Shatner’s Blue Origin launch on New Shepard: Live updates

Oct 10, 2021

William Shatner to be oldest person in space

Actor William Shatner (left) and Blue Origin Vice President of Mission & Flight Operations Audrey Powers (right) will fly on Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-18 mission, on Oct. 12, 2021. — Actor William Shatner (left) and Blue Origin Vice President of Mission & Flight Operations Audrey Powers (right) will fly on Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-18 mission, on Oct. 12, 2021. (Image credit: Blue Origin)

William Shatner is about to set a world record.

When the 90-year-old actor launches on a suborbital spaceflight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket next week, he will become the oldest person ever to fly in space. He’ll beat Wally Funk, who at 87 just set the latest record in July on Blue Origin’s First Human Flight mission with Jeff Bezos.

Funk snagged the title from the late astronaut John Glenn, one of NASA’s original seven Project Mercury astronauts, who was the first American to orbit Earth in 1962. He set the oldest person in space record in 1998 when, at age 77 and while still serving as a U.S. senator, he launched on NASA’s space shuttle Discovery on the STS-95 mission. G