*The countdown clock paused for about 30 minutes this morning so that mission personnel could monitor some winds in the area, but things are now back on track for the launch of actor William Shatner and three other passengers into space today at about 10:35 am, EST.
It’s the second crewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, which will lift off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One, near the West Texas town of Van Horn. A live webcast of the mission can be seen above.
Today’s mission comes 12 weeks after Blue Origin’s first-ever crewed launch, which carried to space the company’s founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk and 18-year-old Dutch student Oliver Daemen.
If all goes well, TV’s Captain Kirk of “Star Trek” will “return” to space as the oldest person to go at 90 years old — a record previously set by Funk on Blue Origin’s July 20 launch.
Flying alongside Shatner on the NS-18 mission — the 18th launch of a New Shepard vehicle — will be Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers; Glen de Vries, vice chair for life sciences and healthcare at the French software company Dassault Systèmes; and Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of the Earth-observation company Planet.
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