Blue Origin, the space company which has received US$7.5bn of funding from Jeff Bezos, launched former Star-Trek actor William Shatner into space this Wednesday.
It is the company’s second passenger flight, following on from the successful journey of Bezos and his brother Mark in July this year.
The expedition lasted approximately 11 minutes and reached heights of 66.5 miles above the Earth’s surface.
Shatner was joined by Blue Origin vice president Audrey Powers, ex-Nasa engineer Chris Boshuizen and Medidata CEO Glen de Vries.
The group experienced roughly four minutes of weightlessness (zero-gravity) before returning to Earth with a controlled landing.
This second flight comes only weeks after the first passenger flight for competitors SpaceX, as the race to be the leader of space tourism intensifies.
Blue Origin is yet to announce when its next launch will take place.
Shatner, who is best known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk on Star-Trek said, “I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle.”
“Everybody in the world needs to do this,” he told Bezos after landing.
