Shatner In Space - A Trekkie's take on Kirk's real starship

Shatner launched on a short 10-minute flight to suborbital space on Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft on Wednesday, Oct. 13, and was moved to tears by what he billed as an experience like no other.

He launched with Blue Origin's Audrey Powers and two paying customers: Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of the San Francisco-based Earth observation company Planet, Glen de Vries, vice chair for life sciences and healthcare at the French software company Dassault Systèmes.

"Everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to see," he told Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos after landing. "That was unbelievable."

Shatner, 90, became the oldest person ever to fly in space when he launched on New Shepard from Blue Origin's Launch Site One near Van Horn, Texas. Liftoff was set for 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT), with a live webcast to begin at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT).

"This is the most important and practical concept for space use and for aiding in saving planet Earth -- William Shatner."