Hopes cast upon the stars

When Blue Origin launched “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and three others into space last week from a remote West Texas launch site, it gave me hope and inspiration.

At 90 years of age, Shatner shattered the record as the oldest person to go to space. That record was briefly held by 82-year-old Wally Funk, who was a passenger on Blue Origin’s maiden flight in July. Prior to Funk, the oldest person was John Glenn, who returned to space on the space shuttle in 1998 at the age of 77.

Seeing commercial ventures like Blue Origin and SpaceX (both operating in Texas, no less) along with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic taking humans to space gives me hope that suborbital thrill rides could one day be within reach of common folk. And if Shatner can do it at 90, there is remote hope for me at one orbit past double-nickel.

I grew up with “Star Trek,” having watched the original run of the series as a toddler in my mother’s lap. Captain James T. Kirk was a hero of mine. I have never met Shatner, though I have seen him twice at comic conventions. When I first heard that Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos was opening the captain’s chair to Shatner, I was thrilled. I was so happy for him and was pulling for him throughout the entire 10-minute mission. Granted, that’s a far cry from a five-year mission aboard the USS Enterprise, but wow! To actually go into space is the dream of millions of people.

With age and physical conditioning no longer being a limiting factor for spaceflight, that clears many hurdles for older people like me. Now, about all that stands in my way is a few million bucks and the limited number of seats. I guess my last, best hope for ever going into space is if Bezos, Branson or SpaceX founder Elon Musk decide to send a journalist. (Hey guys, if you’re reading this, I volunteer!)

Sending Shatner to space was purely a publicity stunt for Blue Origin, but it paid off big time. It got much more attention than the billionaire Bezos could have ever hoped to buy. And Shatner’s unique observations make space travel that much more desirable.

“What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine. I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened ... it’s extraordinary,” Shatner told Bezos after the flight.

“I hope I never recover, that I can maintain what I feel now,” Shatner continued. “I don't want to lose it. It’s so much larger than me and life.”

In media interviews later, Shatner expressed a sentiment nearly every astronaut that has gone into space has observed. All known life exists under a thin skin of air around Earth and we need to clean it up and protect it. I’ve had the good fortune to interview three men who walked on the moon (Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean and Harrison Schmidt) and numerous Apollo and space shuttle astronauts, and to a person they all returned to Earth with a profound appreciation for the environment.

“We came to explore the moon and what we discovered was the Earth,” Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders famously said after he orbited the moon in 1968.

Shatner was joined on the flight by Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations, and paying passengers Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of the Earth-observation company Planet, and Glen de Vries, vice chair for life sciences and healthcare at the French software company Dassault Systèmes.

The four of them reached an altitude of 66 miles, which is four miles higher than the internationally recognized Karman line as the barrier to space. That line is significant, because in the billionaire space race between Bezos and Branson, Branson went up first but only reached an altitude of 53 miles, which is higher than NASA’s demarcation of 50 miles as the boundary, but well below the Karman line.

In comparison, when Alan Shepard became the first American in space, his sub-orbital flight on Mercury Freedom 7 in 1961 went 101 miles up. He later eclipsed that with a 239,000-mile journey to the moon on Apollo 14 in 1971.

I see the altitude as primarily an ego thing. If I went up 53 miles and experienced zero G, you’d have a hard time convincing me that I didn’t go to space. Likewise, if I broke the Karman line, I’d jokingly look down (literally) on those who didn’t make it that far.

Unfortunately, I may never get to experience the thrill of a rocket ride or weightlessness. That’s part of the reason I traveled vicariously with Shatner and company as they made their trek to space. Space travel is mankind’s greatest adventure and the future belongs to those who exploit it.

Someday, hopefully soon or at least in my lifetime, we will see humans return to the moon and set foot on Mars. In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy these real-life star treks and hope and dream that maybe someday me or my offspring will have that opportunity.

Live long and prosper, Mr. Shatner!

 

joe@fredericksburgstandard.com