William Shatner of "Star Trek" flies off Tuesday in a rocket by Jeff Bezos

He is the legendary Captain of the Enterprise of the

series and films

, and yet he had never put his nose into space.

Normal, he is only an actor.

But it is never too late, and William Shatner will soon make the journey to the "frontier of infinity."

He will embark, alongside three other passengers from West Texas, aboard a Blue Origin rocket for a suborbital flight that will be the second manned for the company of billionaire Jeff Bezos.

An event that will delight fans of this pop culture phenomenon, which has inspired generations of astronauts.

“I plan to keep my nose glued to the window.

All I don't want to see is a gremlin looking at me from the other side, ”the Canadian actor joked in a video posted by Blue Origin.

At 90, he will become the oldest person to reach space.

A media stunt

Blue Origin's decision to invite one of the most iconic sci-fi space travelers is not innocent: it should help maintain public interest in the race between several private companies in the sector. In July, British billionaire Richard Branson flew aboard a Virgin Galactic spacecraft, just days before Jeff Bezos, on the New Shepard rocket's first manned flight. SpaceX for its part sent four space tourists for three days in orbit around the Earth in September, a mission which was the subject of a Netflix series.

“Taking a celebrity like William Shatner, who's linked to space, brings a kind of revival and creates media attention,” said Joe Czabovsky, a public relations expert at the University of North Carolina.

This space trip will last about ten minutes in total, about four of which will be weightless.

The spacecraft goes just above the Karman Line, which marks the border of space at an altitude of 100 km according to the international convention.

Jeff Bezos, big fan of "Star Trek"

Note that the

series

is closely linked to the American space program. NASA's first space shuttle was named "Enterprise", after the spacecraft commanded by Captain Kirk. In the 1970s, actress Nichelle Nichols made a video to help NASA recruit astronauts, especially women and minorities. Other actors have participated in conferences of the American agency or lent their voice for documentaries.

“For fifty years, Star Trek has inspired generations of scientists, engineers and even astronauts,” said American astronaut Victor Glover in 2016, in a documentary examining the parallels between the research carried out in the series and those carried out today aboard the International Space Station. Another famous

fan

? Jeff Bezos himself. For example, he explained how Alexa, Amazon's voice assistant, was inspired by the Star Trek computer. He even appeared, unrecognizable under alien makeup, in

in 2016.

The fame of William Shatner is also a welcome diversion for Blue Origin.

The company is accused by some employees - past and present - of maintaining a "toxic" work environment, where sexism is omnipresent.

In a text published online at the end of September, its employees denounced a lack of personnel, resources and extreme pressure to reduce costs and delays, affecting flight safety.

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