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Star Trek's William Shatner in tears after landing back on Earth following historic space trip

Incredible!

Rebecca Lewis
Rebecca Lewis - Los Angeles
Los Angeles correspondentLos Angeles
October 13, 2021
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William Shatner has become the oldest man to ever fly into space at the age of 90.

The Star Trek actor was joined by three others as they flew an estimated 66 miles (106 kilometers) over the West Texas desert on Wednesday morning.

MORE: Star Trek actress Celeste Yarnall passes away aged 74

As he landed back on Earth after 11 minutes in space, and three minutes of weightlessness, William was overcome with tears and shared how he was "so filled with emotion about what just happened".

Star Trek's William Shatner in tears after landing back on Earth following historic space trip

"It's extraordinary, extraordinary. I hope I can maintain what I feel now. I hope I never recover. I don't want to lose it. It's so much larger than me and life."

William, who was born in 1931, flew aboard a Blue Origin flight, designed by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.

MORE: 15 books that are being made into TV shows in 2021

"What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine," he added.

"It hasn't got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb," William shared.

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William was overcome with emotion

"It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death. To see the blue color whip by you, and now you're staring into blackness, that's the thing… You look down, there's the blue down there and the black up there. There is Mother Earth and comfort, and there is, is there death? I don't know, but is that death? Is that the way death is? It was so moving; this experience, it was something unbelievable."

William, who gained fame portraying Captain Kirk on the original Star Trek in the 1950s and 1960s, was joined by co-founder of satellite company Planet Labs, Chris Boshuizen, and software executive Glen de Vries, as well as Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations.

When he arrived back on land, William also spoke of the "vulnerability" of the Earth, sharing that he "would love to communicate as much as possible about the jeopardy [of Earth]".

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William was in tears as they landed

"The moment you see the vulnerability of everything. This air, which is giving us life, is thinner than skin, it's a sliver, it's immeasurably small, it's negligible."

As the capsule arrived in space, soaring past the Kármán Line,William's Twitter account shared a tweet with a quote from Isaac Newton which read: "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."

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