Captain James T. Kirk blasts off into space

I think on Wednesday, William Shatner (aka Captain James T. Kirk) blasted off into space for 10 minutes as the oldest man to experience space. Those who grew up watching the Star Trek series as science fiction/space travel fans (probably around the 60’s, maybe early 70’s as syndication run) definitely thought he was the perfect candidate to go to space. He, as well as Spock and maybe Dr. McCoy, were the face of the Star Trek series and thus he was the perfect emblem for the latest space endeavor.

Unfortunately, the other two, as well as Scotty, are deceased and thus could not see one of their “shipmates” reach the space frontier. Chekov, Sulu and Lt Uhura are still alive.

The only jarring aspect to this flight was that it was on one of the billionaire’s spaceship – Jeff Bezos. The fact that billionaires (Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos) are racing to claim spaceflight rights is jarring because their efforts present an image of the richest men building ships to get off of planet Earth while climate change is ravaging the world. It looks like the richest people are planning their escape, leaving the poor and the regular people behind to face the extreme weather.

That’s not a good image, even for Richard Branson who I suspect is the most likable billionaire of the three (Elon and Jeff Bezos have been accused to mistreating their employees).

On one hand the flight was an exciting event and on the other slightly nauseating.

Before I end this post, I want to say that I always thrilled to the Star Trek opening anthem:

“Space, the final frontier
To explore strange new worlds,
To seek out new life and new civilization
To boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Star Trek

(But I was not a Trekkie fan that I went to Star Trek conventions or Comic Cons. That stuff never appealed to me.)