Thread by @cfishman

William Shatner is going to space for real. Next Tues.

@blueorigin confirms Shatner will be 1 of 4 crew members for next sub-orbital flight.

Classic Shatner comment:

'I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself.'

Shatner is 90.

2/ Shatner's Blue Origin flight will be aboard the company's New Shepard rocket—a 'pop-fly' flight identical to the one Jeff Bezos took this July.

Up to the edge of space in a 60 mile high arc, then back to return on land in Texas.

Shatner will be oldest person to fly to space.

3/ Other crew on the flight:

• Audrey Powers, head of flight ops for Blue, & a former NASA Mission Control flight controller

• Chris Boshuizen, co-founder / former CTO of @planet Labs, now a VC investor

• Glen de Vries, a health care exec & pilot

blueorigin.com/news/shatner-p…

4/ It's a high-powered crew.

Powers has a BS in aeronautical/astronautical engineering from Purdue, JD from Santa Clara Univ., & 10 years' work as an engineer

Boshuizen has a PhD in physics from Univ of Sydney, 4 years at NASA Ames before @planet

—>

5/ De Vries has BS from Carnegie Mellon in molecular biology & genetics, & is CEO of a company that manages data for pharmaceutical clinical trials

Shatner has an economics degree from McGill Univ, an Emmy, a Golden Globe; and has been helming a starship since 1966

6/ Guessing William Shatner will be the first person who has won an Emmy, and the first person who has won a Golden Globe, to fly in space.

Just a reminder of the early space explorers:

9 of 12 Apollo astros who walked on the Moon had graduate degrees, including 3 PhDs