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Star Trek legend William Shatner blasts into space

Star Trek legend William Shatner blasts into space
© Reuters
Star Trek legend William Shatner becomes the oldest person ever to travel into space.

William Shatner has completed a journey into space some 55 years after he made his debut as Captain Kirk in Star Trek.

At the age of 90, the actor also sets a record as the oldest ever person to travel into space, breaking the previous record by eight years.

Shatner and three other astronauts blasted off shortly before 8am PT this morning on board a flight from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's space travel company Blue Origin.

The whole experience lasted just over 10 minutes, with the rocket hitting 2,000mph as it passed the Karman line - the internationally-agreed definition for the start of space, which is at around 330,000 ft.

Having disembarked from the craft, a visibly emotional Shatner said: "Everybody in the world needs to do this. It's incredible. It was so moving. This experience is something unbelievable."

Turning to Bezos, he fought back tears and said: "What you have given me is the most profound experience I could imagine. I'm just so filled with emotion... I hope I never recover from it. I hope I maintain what I feel now."

The journey was the second human flight from Blue Origin, which is aiming to make commercial space travel an affordable reality in the years to come.

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