Exclusively for variety, William Shatner he told about his exciting – but also terrifying – experience aboard the New Shepard, the rocket of the Blue origin which took it about 100 km from Earth, right on the border between our planet’s atmosphere and what we conventionally call outer space.
A tormented experience, preceded by numerous exercises and just as many disturbing safety tests. Before the flight, the crew of which Shatner was part (he was in the company of a tech mogul and two NASA engineers) were shown a menacing concrete room with oxygen cylinders. “What’s it for,” Shatner says naively. “Oh, you’ll have to hurry there in case the missile is about to explode.”
“I remember in the moments before I left I couldn’t help but think about the tragedy of Hindenburg,” says laconically Captain Kirkoz.
Fortunately, the journey was safe and smooth, Shatner never had to use that security room. Nevertheless, the actor says that once he reached height, the sense of wonder at the absence of gravity and the incredible view soon gave way to a existential despair:
It was one of the strongest feelings of pain I’ve ever experienced. The contrast between the merciless coldness the space and the warm Earth restaurant below filled me with an overwhelming sadness. Every day we are called to confront ourselves with the awareness of who we are destroy the earth by our hand: the extinction of animal species, flora and fauna. . . things that took five billion years to evolve and suddenly we will never see them again because of the intervention of humanity. It filled me with fear. My space journey was supposed to be a celebration; instead it looked like a funeral.
In the link in the source you will find the actor’s full testimonial, which we highly recommend reading.
Source: Lega Nerd
