William Shatner sets record in space with Blue Origin spaceflight
Source: CBS News
William Shatner, the 90-year-old veteran of countless imaginary space voyages playing Star Trek's Captain Kirk, blasted off for real Wednesday, becoming the oldest person to reach the final frontier in a PR bonanza for Jeff Bezos and his rocket company Blue Origin. Over the course of about 10 minutes, Shatner and three crewmates took off atop a hydrogen-fueled rocket, climbed to edge of space more than 62 miles up and enjoyed three to four minutes of weightlessness, along with spectacular views of Earth, before plunging back to a gentle parachute-assisted touchdown.
The flight marked only the second crewed launch of a New Shepard capsule since Bezos, his brother Mark, 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk and Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen took off July 20 on the company's first such flight. Shatner eclipsed Funk's age record by eight years and John Glenn's mark before that by 13. "I want to see space, I want to see the Earth, I want to see what we need to do to save Earth," Shatner told Gayle King on "CBS Mornings" before launch. "I want to have a perspective that hasn't been shown to me before. That's what I'm interested in seeing."
Boshuizen and de Vries paid undisclosed sums for their seats aboard the New Shepard spacecraft, but Shatner was an invited guest of Blue Origin. Powers, a former NASA flight controller now Blue Origin vice president of flight operations, flew as a company representative. While the New Shepard rocket and capsule are only capable of up-and-down sub-orbital flights, Shatner and his crewmates endured the same liftoff accelerations space shuttle astronauts once felt — about three times the normal force of gravity — and even higher "G loads" during descent back into the lower atmosphere.
Even so, Shatner and his crewmates were considered passengers, not astronauts, aboard the automated New Shepard. But professional astronauts nonetheless welcomed them to the brotherhood of space travelers. Especially Shatner. "I'm impressed. I mean, he's 90 years old and showing that somebody at his age can actually fly to space," Matthias Maurer, a European Space Agency astronaut launching to the International Space Station at the end of the month, told CBS News.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-flight/
Congrats to him.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Shatner's worn hairpieces and/or wigs for a very long time, at least since the 70s, if not before. He definitely wore them in all the Star Trek movies.
Whoever his wigmaker(s) is/are, they have done a very good job for him over the years. His hair has almost always looked very natural and not as obviously fake as most toupees, with the styles changing in keeping with current fashion. The T.J. Hooker hair was very 80s, which is probably why it looks a bit much now. 
Heather Locklear
(and I suppose it made "Heather Locklear" a household name for some households
)
And then there was "Denny Crane" in "Boston Legal" that he seemed to enjoy the most...
are politically liberal and active and make themselves well heard on social media, and that includes George Takei, who is oft-quoted on DU, along with Walter Koenig, Patrick Stewart, Levar Burton, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, Jeri Ryan, etc., etc.
Shatner has been more into "Shatner", which is his right, but he is who he is.
And as a sidenote, I just found this!!!! 
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@timruss2
Biden’s flagging poll numbers because of the pandemic??! Gimmie a fucking break. How about Qanon, anti-vax, anti-mask, Trump asses, Sturges’ 250k un-vaxed unmasked bike rallies, stadiums full of giant maskless crowds ?! THAT’S the reason for the ongoing pandemic!!
8:38 AM · Oct 12, 2021
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@timruss2
His inane rants, flat out lies and hysteria promoting rhetoric are routine… what’s frightening is the support he got from Rep Chuck Grassley who actually shared the stage with Trump at this rally.
Trump Horrifies World at Most Alarming Rally Ever
🛡️ Get AtlasVPN for just $1.39/month (86% discount) at https://atlasv.pn/pakman--Donald Trump's latest rally, in Iowa with major Republican politicians, was...
youtube.com
3:04 AM · Oct 13, 2021
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@timruss2
You know who has a 6 times stricter vaccine policy than Biden’s? Yeah… hypocrite FOX NEWS!! And Tucker Carlson tried to deny it. The company memo says explicitly what their policy is. That even includes masks !!!
Despite that they preach not to take precautions against COVID.
3:08 AM · Oct 13, 2021
Link to tweet
tim russ
@timruss2
·
Oct 13, 2021
An non-partisan., professional, election official with an A+ rating in a county that Trump WON by 64%, just quit because the MAGA cultists harassed, demeaned and protested against her so badly. She’ll be replaced by a Trump loving Qanon Freak now- for the next election !
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tim russ
@timruss2
Right under our noses folks……
5:00 AM · Oct 13, 2021
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@timruss2
The latest Q conspiracy that I’m sure Trump is behind is…. The Chinese changed the outcome of the 2020 election in China by using their wireless thermostats. And yes….there are 10’s of thousands of people here in the US who believe it .
5:19 AM · Oct 13, 2021
Tuvok!!!!!
I've known some hard-core Star Wars fans who today wear red hats and complain non-stop about the newer movies because of their perceived outright political correctness. "There weren't any black stormtroopers!" (As if we actually saw a stormtrooper without a helmet prior to The Force Awakens.)
With Star Trek, it's the same thing. If a program or movie isn't made exactly as a person likes, it's decried as trying to convey a political message and must be made non-canon right away.
(Mind you, I wasn't entirely happy with the sequel trilogy, but I still found it entertaining, and rather than complain non-stop, I chalk it up to "I didn't make the film myself and have no business complaining that the film makers didn't ask me."
I remarked to myself that luckily he is an actor and was good at recovering from the awe (and some of the emoting was his instinct kicking in to ad lib through it to keep his wits about him).
But I think what seemed to have gotten him the most was the speed of the vehicle. He kept repeating that - "shooting through the blue sky and then suddenly it's all black sky". I think he expected it to be like a "fast plane" and we all know a "plane" ain't going 2000 mph.
They hit just over 351,000 ft (~66.5 miles) at apogee.
to include Shatner as having reportedly "experienced" that.
(they move fast
)
...agreed...
...but doesn't the Bezos rocket look more like a flying dick than a normal rocket?
...might account for some of the loss of admiration...
...
?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&h=370&dpr=1.5when they get older.
(sorry I had to)
You do know that NASA has been working in partnership and contracting out TO private industry since their inception.
The difference between "now" and "the past", is that "in the past", the government contract stipulations were that NASA would stick their name on the vehicles and would have "ownership" of the end product. That is a standard stipulation for most government contracts with private industry - whether they were "building" a booster rocket or "Healthcare.gov". But if you think companies like "Grumman" (now "Northrop-Grumman" ) were merely "ghosts in the machine", then you are mistaken.
I will re-post what I posted at the last launch (SpaceX's "Inspiration4" ) - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2802123
The main difference between "then" and "now" is that back then (before 2011), when NASA did their contracts and used "taxpayer dollars" to pay for it, the government "owned" the end product (the "tech" - hardware, software modules, etc) so that NASA could "slap its name on the side of the vehicle" per the contract stipulation. The actual "non-private industry government employees were essentially SMEs (subject matter experts), researchers, and techies, with many of them becoming Project Managers who helped to define the project goals, do some design, and be able to "define the work product" so that the actual work could be contracted to private entities to build and maintain.
Government employees worked alongside their contractors as part of teams to get the job done.
"Now", it's the same taxpayer dollars used for NASA contracts where the government "defines" the goals and helps with the design elements, but are allowing private industry to "own" their product (probably with some exceptions where the government defines which hardware/software modules are or should be "government-owned" systems), so a contractor (private entity) like SpaceX, can slap THEIR name on the side of the vehicle.
I hate to say but the difference is essentially a "cosmetic" change, outside of the fact that the federal government is not supposed to be a "for-profit" entity where private industry (at least in this field) generally is.
For example, some of the big contractors were -
BOEING - https://www.boeing.com/space/
GRUMMAN (now Northrop-Grumman) - https://www.northropgrumman.com/space/space-legacy/
MCDONNELL-DOUGLAS (eventually gobbled up by Boeing) - https://old.texasarchive.org/a_journey_to_the_moon/mcdonnell_douglas/
GENERAL ELECTRIC - https://www.ge.com/news/reports/the-right-stuff-ge-tech-has-been-at-the-launch
LOCKHEED MARTIN - https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/history/space-race.html
NORTH AMERICAN/ROCKWELL - https://old.texasarchive.org/a_journey_to_the_moon/north_american_rockwell/
ROCKETDYNE - https://www.rocket.com/who-we-are/history
See this too - https://history.nasa.gov/MHR-5/app_c.htm
For example, the contractors involved with the Saturn rockets (which are still used today) -
This may be instructive - https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4102/contents.htm
And note this from the above link -
The NASA Acquisition Process: Contracting for Research and Development
A SUMMARY OF NASA CONTRACTING PHILOSOPHY
[65] From its establishment to the present, NASA has contracted with the private sector for most of the products and services it uses.
https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4102/ch4.htm
There is this disingenuous fantasy going around that NASA was peopled with nothing but a bunch of GS-7 and GS-9 Civil Service "grunts" running around designing and constructing space craft and there was no "private industry" involved.
And I say this as a now-retired, 30+ year federal employee who worked with "contractors" at my own worksite, at various points throughout my federal career.
There is a lot of fantasy going around about NASA and the federal government in general - particularly when it comes to contractors. But it's easy to go around spouting the "millionaires and billionaires" refrain rather than actually doing some research on the entire U.S. space program and how it got to where it is today.
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@NASAKennedy
🚨 @NASA's #LucyMission is scheduled to launch no earlier than Saturday, Oct. 16 at 5:34am ET on a @ULALaunch Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41. Live mission coverage begins on Wednesday, Oct. 13.
Here's how you can tune in: https://go.nasa.gov/3FEkmYA
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3:49 PM · Oct 11, 2021
And they are CONTRACT BUILT (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, etc) - https://www.ulalaunch.com/
They will be retiring that and will replace it with something else (again contract-built). This has been going on for over 60 years.
And yes, they retire rockets like the Saturn series and replace them, just like they are about to retire the Atlas rockets.
I really miss the shuttles which were - yup - "retired". I think Virgin Galactic is trying to focus on the "space plane" type of tech.
I know there are a number of DUers who previously or even currently work for (or who have family/friends who work for) those private companies and may have been or are involved in some aspect of researching, designing, manufacturing, and testing those parts for use in the space craft that NASA uses.
Hell... NIH ("the government" ) partnered with Moderna ("big pharma" ) to make that vaccine (that I got) - https://www.axios.com/moderna-nih-coronavirus-vaccine-ownership-agreements-22051c42-2dee-4b19-938d-099afd71f6a0.html
Bob Herman
The National Institutes of Health may own intellectual property that undergirds a leading coronavirus vaccine being developed by Moderna, according to documents obtained by Axios and an analysis from Public Citizen.
Why it matters: Because the federal government has an actual stake in this vaccine, it could try to make the vaccine a free or low-cost public good with wide distribution, if the product turns out to be safe and effective.
The big picture: The NIH mostly funds outside research, but it also often invents basic scientific technologies that are later licensed out and incorporated into drugs that are sold at massive profits. The agency rarely claims ownership stakes or pursues patent rights, but that appears to be different with this coronavirus vaccine.
"We do have some particular stake in the intellectual property" behind Moderna's coronavirus vaccine, NIH Director Francis Collins said during an Economic Club interview in May.
Driving the news: New evidence shines light on the extent of NIH's involvement.
NIH and Moderna have researched coronaviruses, like MERS, for several years, and signed a contract this past December that stated "mRNA coronavirus vaccine candidates [are] developed and jointly owned" by the two parties. The contract was not specific to the novel coronavirus, and it was signed before the new virus had been sequenced. Separately, four NIH scientists have filed for a provisional patent application entitled "2019-nCoV vaccine," according to disclosures in a pending scientific paper. Moderna scientists co-authored that paper, but none are listed as vaccine co-inventors. That makes it clear "the government and the public have a stake" in the coronavirus vaccine, said Zain Rizvi, a health law and policy researcher at Public Citizen. "The vaccine would not exist without the intellectual contributions of federal scientists."
(snip)
Decades of science back the creation of mRNA vaccines
The Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 may seem like it developed quickly, but it was built on decades of research by NIH’s Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center (VRC). The scientists of the VRC have learned from experience by studying the immune system and working on vaccines for other infectious diseases that pose major threats to human health around the world.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized three vaccines to prevent COVID-19. Two of them are based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. One of the mRNA vaccines — the Moderna vaccine — resulted from VRC scientists’ work with researchers from the Moderna company and other organizations.
Both the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines are more than 90% effective at preventing infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. As of June 18, 2021, more than 300 million doses of mRNA vaccines have been given in the United States.
John Mascola, M.D., is the director of the VRC, which is part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of NIH’s 27 Institutes and Centers. VRC scientists work on safe and effective vaccines for human disease.
https://covid19.nih.gov/news-and-stories/nih-vaccine-research-center
They call it "public-private partnerships".
and I think a missed a couple of episodes but did see the rest - and mainly because a few years before that came out, i had a work-related trip to Galveston, TX and the last day when we got out early, a bunch of us drove up to Houston to visit the Johnson Space Center. There was a shuttle up at the time we went so we couldn't go tour Mission Control but it was around when the movie "Apollo 13" had come out, so that (and the movie "Twister" ) was all the buzz at the Center.
They had the Apollo 17 command module there on display (I think that was the one that was there back in 1995/1996 and is still there as I understand) -
I remember someone saying while we were there (or maybe it was narrative that went along with that exhibit) that the amount of memory that the command module systems used back then was what you might typically see for a (digital) wrist watch - at least the ones from the mid-'90s (which have morphed into stuff like Apple watches, etc).
Bravo, William Shatner, Bravo!
...shat his pants?
...he seemed extremely nervous to me...
...another commercial stunt...
I have been waiting to type that sentence ever since these guys started "pay as you go space trip." Only of course, they in no way have "paid" for the real cost...
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@WilliamShatner
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now & then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.🚀
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10:54 AM · Oct 13, 2021
(as blabby as he is on twitter, he had been conspicuously avoiding this subject of the launch)
