Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is launching William Shatner on October tourist spaceflight

Actor William Shatner spoke at the "William Shatner” panel at the 17th annual Star Trek convention held at Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on August 4, 2018.
Science fiction will soon be a reality as William Shatner will launch on the next crewed Spaceflight of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

Blue Origin will fly Captain Kirk, a Canadian actor, as one of its passengers aboard the New Shepard rocket.

The launch date is Oct. 12. Blue Origin's vice-president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers will join the flight. The crew of four will also be joined by Glen de Vries, co-founder Medidata and Chris Boshuizen, previously announced members of Planet Labs.

Blue Origin will broadcast the mission live via webcast, called NS-18. Coverage is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. ET. ET on October 12.