William Shatner once did a speaking album to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust. “It’s lonely hear in space,” the lyrics go. I’m not sure 3 minutes was long enough to be lonely, but Shatner can officially cross the 65 mile journey off his bucket list.
Shatner and newly minted astronauts Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries and Audrey Powers, stepped out of the New Shepard’s iconic white capsule in West Texas following their first mission to the final frontier, where they spent three minutes in zero-gravity after reaching an altitude of 351,186 feet and a velocity of 2,235mph.
The foursome’s trip was made possible by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and he was there to greet them on there return.
‘Hello, astronauts. Welcome to Earth!’ Jeff Bezos said as he opened the hatch.
Actually, Shatners words when he landed were really very touching.
‘Everybody in the world needs to do this,’ he said. ‘To see the blue color whip by and now you’re staring into blackness, that’s the thing. The covering of blue, this sheath, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around, we say, ‘Oh, that’s blue sky.’ And then suddenly you shoot through it all, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness.’
Breaking into tears, Shatner then told Bezos: ‘I’m so filled with emotion with what just happened. I hope I never recover from this.’
Welcome home, space cadet.
Departing:
And the return:
