Captain Kirk Returns to Space at 90 Years Old!

There's exciting news for all the fans of the original, classic "Star Trek. The handsome Captain James T. Kirk, as in William Shatner is back in space. And this time, it's for real. While Shatner is not on the Enterprise, he is on the Blue Origin rocket.

Along with the "Star Trek" star, the crew consisted of Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers, co-founder of satellite company Planet Labs Chris Boshuizen, and software executive Glen de Vries. And Shatner certainly seemed excited as he Tweeted last night, "I need to get settled in for the night. Tomorrow comes super early for us. Until tomorrow!". He ended the tweet with a Vulcan salute. Here go the details.

The New Shepard NS-18 flight took 11 minutes and went past the Kármán Line. The Kármán Line is the internationally recognized boundary of space so while Shatner may not be going "where no man has ever gone before", he is certainly going to be in space. And this time, there will be no play-acting or retakes.

He was a bit nervous before the take-off, especially when there were few delays. But Shatner was determined. As was Blue Origin.

Shatner is quite the spry 90-year-old, considering he has become the oldest human to go into space. And the crew safely landed back where Jeff Bezos was there for the welcome with the words, "Hello astronauts, welcome to Earth!"

A few minutes before the takeoff, Shatner had tweeted, "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now & then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

After landing back on terra firma, in Texas, CNN covered it live. Shatner is shown to be visibly moved, and said, "I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. It's extraordinary, extraordinary. I hope I can maintain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it. It's so much larger than me and life."

In a conversation with Jeff Bezos after the Blue Origin flight, Shatner thanked him, saying "What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine." He also said, "It hasn't got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death."

The spacecraft that Shatner flew in was the same that took Bezos to space earlier in summer and sparked many phallic memes soon after. Developed by Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, it took off at 10.50 am ET from the Blue Origin West Texas site. And what may have added to the magic of the flight for Shatner, was the fact that he did not have to pay a dime for the trip.

Bezos comped the trip for Shatner, being an avid "Star Trek" fan. Meanwhile, Shatner believes that everyone must do this at least once because what we see as the sky is like a comforter around us. Else, in space, there's Earth and there's just black. Clearly, for Shatner, space is the final frontier.