William Shatner goes to space on Blue Origin mission

Back on Earth, William Shatner grew emotional describing his experience launching into space

"I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. It's extraordinary, extraordinary. I hope I can maintain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it. It's so much larger than me and life."

Speaking to Jeff Bezos after the Blue Origin flight, the 90-year-old actor told him: "What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine." 

He continued: "It hasn't got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death." 

After William Shatner and the rest of the crew landed back on Earth, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos opened the capsule hatch and said, "Hello astronauts, welcome to Earth!"

Audrey Powers was the first to emerge out of the capsule, followed by Shatner.

Bezos welcomed the crew members back in his Blue Origin space suit along with the members' families.

Ninety-year-old William Shatner, who gained fame portraying Captain Kirk on the original "Star Trek," just hitched a ride aboard a suborbital spacecraft that grazed the edge of outer space before parachuting to a landing, making Shatner the oldest person ever to travel to space.

Shatner took off aboard a New Shepard spacecraft — the one developed by Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, and the same vehicle that took Bezos himself to space this summer — just before 10:50 a.m. ET from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site.

Bezos, a lifelong "Star Trek" fan, flew Shatner as a comped guest. With him were three crewmates: Chris Boshuizen, a co-founder of satellite company Planet Labs, and software executive Glen de Vries, who are both paying customers, and Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations.

The trip took just 10 minutes from takeoff to landing. The crew experienced about three minutes of weightlessness at the top of their flight path before their capsule deployed parachutes to slow their descent and touched back down near their Texas launch site.

Shanter's new record as the oldest person to fly to space one-ups the record set just three months ago by 82-year-old Wally Funk, who was previously denied the opportunity to fly by NASA in the 1960s before she joined Bezos on his July flight.

The capsule carrying the crew aboard the Blue Origin flight has returned and just landed on Earth.

Actor William Shatner could be heard saying, "That was unlike anything they described."

Shatner became the oldest person to travel to space.

William Shatner's official Twitter account sent out a quote from Sir Isaac Newton as the 90-year-old crossed into space.

See the tweet:

The New Shepard's booster has now landed. We're still waiting for the capsule, carrying the crew, to land.

The crew abroad the Blue Origin flight should now start feeling weightlessness.

They will be allowed to unstrap from their seats and float in the capsule.

The crew capsule soared past the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, and has now reached the top of its flight path.

The booster has now separated.

The New Shepard's booster has detached from the capsule.

The crew capsule will continue vaulting upward as the rocket, which is more aerodynamic, begins to fall back toward Earth. 

The New Shepard rocket has just shut off its engine.

This is normal and part of the process. The crew is still heading into space.