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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Anthony Cuthbertson

Blue Origin launch – as it happened: William Shatner launched into space on historic flight

Blue Origin
Watch live as Star Trek actor William Shatner blasts into space in New Shepard

Blue Origin has launched William Shatner into space aboard its New Shepard rocket.

The Star Trek actor has gone where no 90-year-old has gone before, becoming the oldest person to ever fly to space.

According to a live stream of the historic event, Shatner reached an altitude of roughly 350,000ft and a velocity of about 2,000mph.

The trip lasted about 10 minutes, when the capsule fell back to Earth with a parachute.

The New Shepard NS-18 flight was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was delayed due to windy weather at the Texas launch site.

Shatner is joined on the flight by Blue Origin Vice President Audrey Powers, former Nasa engineer Chris Boshuizen and Medidata CEO Glen de Vries.

It comes less than three months after Jeff Bezos made the same 11-minute trip aboard the first ever crewed New Shepard rocket.

You can read how the launch played out in our live blog below, as well as watch a video of the event at the top of this page.

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