Star Trek legend William Shatner plans to go into Space for real – at the age of 88.
TV chiefs want him to be one of the world’s first space tourists aboard one of the commercial rockets which could take off as early as this year.
Shatner shot to fame 54 years ago as Captain James T Kirk on the inter-galactic USS Enterprise with the mission “to boldly go”.
Now he has pitched the idea of a real-life space adventure to TV chiefs in the US and they are enthusiastic.
He said: “I’ve tried to sell a show and I believe I have. But an announcement I’ll make in the weeks to come about me going into space... it looks likely.”
He is reluctant to reveal precise details yet but he jokes that, at his age, if the trip kills him he would not be bothered.
“You can look at it from many points of view,” he said.
“One is I feel that I’ll be coming back, but if I don’t what have I got to lose?”
Shatner, who recently filed for divorce from his fourth wife Elizabeth, is slightly concerned that he might feel a little dodgy when he is catapulted from the launch pad.
He says he wants to sneak a vomit bag into his spacesuit.
But he insists he is still in good enough shape to head for the stars like Captain Kirk.
“I’m talking to you at 88 years old,” he said. “I’m at the peak of my creative abilities and don’t believe I have lost anything.
“I’m in good physical and mental health.”
Shatner is about to return to British TV screens hosting a new series of documentary films about bizarre mysteries around the world called The UnXplained.
