22 May 2026
William Shatner almost got off the Blue Origin rocket during the countdown to his historic space flight.
William Shatner flew to space in 2021
The 95-year-old actor became the oldest person to go up into space when he blasted off on Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard NS-18 rocket in October 2021 but he had doubts while climing 11 stories in the gantry to get to the ship opening and noticed gas coming off one of the vents, which he was tod was hydrogen.
Speaking in conversation with close friend Neil DeGrasse Tyson during their The Universe Is Absurd! event at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, the Hollywood Reporter reports he added: “So now, with trepidation, I enter the ship and I’m in the chair, a five-point buckle, and the countdown begins.”
To add to his nerves, someone in ground contol noted there was an “anomaly” and he recalled thinking: “What the f*** is an anomaly?”
The countdown continued and those on board were told: “All right, everybody, we’re removing the gantry. Anybody who wants to get off, get off now.”
He added: “And I go, OK. And I think, ‘I can’t, I’m Captain Kirk. I can’t.’
Shatner described the G-force on the flight as being like an “elephant sitting on your chest … and then suddenly it’s off and suddenly you’re floating.”
Once he unbuckled his seat, he headed straight across tot he window to look out, and when he landed back, he was overcome with emotion.
He said: “Jeff Bezos was there with a microphone and international cameras, and I’m weeping.
“I’m crying uncontrollably, and I don’t know why. [Eventually I realised] that I’m in grief.”
The Star Trek legend recalled visiting remote areas “that are in trouble” for a show called Voice of the Planet and remembered being appalled by the garbage left behind by hikers in the Himalayas.
He said: “S*** is all over the place in this pristine mountains and it echoes the shit that we’ve left all over the planet with,” he said. “Now we’ve learned that microplastics are floating in our blood.
“As I speak to you, I could drop dead from microplastics. It’s a tragic thing that we’re doing to our planet, and I was in grief for the Earth and the beauty that we see all around us.”
Shatner has previously questioned why “vulnerable” humans are sent to explore space, rather than robots, but he has now realised it requires the “soul and the brain” of a person to have the “experience”.
He said: “The voyage of exploration, which going to Mars will be … needs to be experienced by a human being.
“It takes the human being’s experience, it takes the soul, the brain, the conscious and the unconscious being that we are to experience this magical thing called exploration.
“A cold robot can send back the facts probably better … [but] only a human being can experience that. It’s not the same experience to send mechanical entities. … What a marvelous thing for a human being to discover whatever there is to discover on Mars as opposed to a cold robot running along there and running out of power.”
Tyson replied: “Let’s summarise what you just said. No one has ever given a ticker-tape parade for a robot. No one has ever named a middle school after a robot.”
