William Shatner’s Trek to Space Delayed a Smidgen

  |  
Oct 11, 2021
William Shatner entertains a capacity crowd at Days of the Dead, a horror and pop culture-themed convention taking place through the weekend at the downtown Westin Hotel, Indianapolis, Saturday, July 6, 2019. Autograph signings, a trade show, and lots of cosplay marks the three-day event. 30 Horror Able Photos For Indy Convention

Famous Star Trek alumnus William Shatner will have to wait on his voyage to space — for an extra day.

Shatner, among others, was scheduled to visit space for a handful of minutes on Tuesday, but now the crew will depart on Wednesday. Weather was cited for the brief postponement.

Jeff Bezos’ company spearheading the mission, Blue Origin, released this statement on the delay, “As part of today’s Flight Readiness Review, the mission operations team confirmed the vehicle has met all mission requirements and astronauts began their training today. Weather is the only gating factor for the launch window.”

If the mission is not rescheduled again, Shatner is poised to become the oldest man in space at 90 years old — a fitting personality for the achievement.

The launch will occur in West Texas around 8:30 am local time on October 13.

Here’s Shatner in an interview discussing the mission before it even became finalized:

In an exchange with CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week, Shatner opined on his upcoming adventure, “I’m really quite apprehensive, as you might have guessed. I’m a little nervous about that. No, I really am. There’s an element of chance here. This isn’t like going on one of the various life-ending possibilities that I’ve done all my life.”

Overall, though, Shatner is excited about the Blue Origin endeavor, evidenced by the totality of his interview with Cooper.

In the infancy of Blue Origin’s travels to space, Shatner is the first celebrity crewmember.

Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. His odyssey with Star Trek starts from beginning to finish, watching ‘The Original Series,’ all the way to the present day. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).