Blue Origin: Star Trek actor has become the oldest person to go to space!

90-year-old William Shatner has become the oldest person to head to space

Actor and former Star Trek star William Shatner has become the oldest person EVER to travel to space!

The 90-year-old headed to the edge of space on Wednesday in Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin capsule and landed safely back on Earth just after 10:00 local time (16:00 BST).

The actor was joined by three other crew members on the NS-18 space mission.

After landing Mr Shatner said: "Everybody in the world needs to do this." "It was unbelievable."

William Shatner (second from left) is famous for playing Captain Kirk in the space series Star Trek

Mr Shatner is most famous for playing Captain James T Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the original Star Trek TV series in the 1960s, and later appearing in films of the series.

Speaking before the trip he said: "I've heard about space for a long time now. I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle".

His journey follows in the footsteps of Sir Richard Branson and billionaire Jeff Bezos who both successfully travelled to the edge of space earlier this year.

Like Bezos, made the trip in the New Shephard spacecraft which is owned by the billionaire's private space company, Blue Origin.

Wally Funk became the oldest person to travel to space when they blasted off earlier this year

William has now beaten the current record for the oldest person to travel to space which was set by 82-year-old Wally Funk. The space pioneer was part of Jeff Bezos' space crew which blasted off in July - that trip also included the youngest person to head to space!

As with the previous flight, the voyage lasted around 10 minutes and took the crew just beyond the Karman Line - the most widely recognised boundary of space which lies 100km (60 miles) above the Earth.

Mr Shatner was overwhelmed with emotion upon landing

Those aboard got to experience a short period of weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth through the capsule's big windows.

Speaking to Jeff Bezos after landing Shatner said: "What you have given me is the most profound experience. I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. I hope I never recover from this. I hope I can retain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it."

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