Washington:
Blue Origin announced Sunday it was delaying an upcoming flight set to carry actor William Shatner to space due to anticipated winds.
Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in the cult classic Television series “Star Trek,” is due to turn out to be the 1st member of the iconic show’s cast to journey to the final frontier as a guest aboard a Blue Origin suborbital rocket.
His history-generating flight was scheduled for October 12.
But “due to forecasted winds on Tuesday, October 12, Blue Origin’s mission operations team has made the decision to delay the launch of NS-18 and is now targeting Wednesday, October 13,” a spokeswoman stated in a statement.
The new flight is scheduled for 8:30 am (1330 GMT).
Shatner, 90, will be the oldest individual ever to go to space.
His trip will take him and the NS-18 rocket crew just beyond the Karman line, 62 miles (one hundred kilometers) higher, exactly where they will practical experience 4 minutes of weightlessness and gaze out at the curvature of the planet.
Blue Origin’s choice to invite one of the most recognizable galaxy-faring characters from science fiction for its second crewed flight has helped sustain excitement about the nascent space tourism sector.
For fans, the 10-minute hop from a West Texas base back to Earth will be a fitting coda for a pop culture phenomenon that inspired generations of astronauts.
()