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'The weightlessness, oh Jesus': Moment awestruck Star Trek star William Shatner, 90, floats around New Shepard capsule in zero gravity and looks down at Earth as he becomes the oldest person in space
Daily Mail ^ | 13 October 2021 | Gina Martinez

Posted on 10/13/2021 10:26:00 PM PDT by Trillian

New footage shows Star Trek's William Shatner marvel at his view of Earth from his mission orbiting the planet aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket.

Shatner, who is famed for his role as Captain Kirk in the 1960s sci-fi series, and newly minted astronauts Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries and Audrey Powers, ventured 351,186 feet above Earth's surface where they spent three minutes in weightlessness.

They were captured floating weightlessly in wonder and excitement as they looked down on Earth.

A new clip of the epic journey shows Shatner and crew adjust to their new conditions, with Shatner seemingly taken aback by being weightless and repeating 'oh, Jesus' while his fellow crew members played around with floating toys.

Eventually Shatner adjusts and is heard laughing joyfully and says 'no description can equal this,' while looking outside a window at the amazing view of Earth.

His crewmates seem just as overjoyed, giggling and repeating 'this is nuts!' and 'holy hell!' while Shatner just looks at them with a look of astonishment, uttering 'oh wow.'

While his younger crewmates took turns looking out the window upside down, the 90-year-old Shatner pulled his face as close to the window as possible to soak in the once-in-a-lifetime few.

Once Shatner, who is now the oldest person to go to space, made it back to terra firma he came back with a message: 'What we're looking down upon is Mother Earth and it needs protecting in the world needs to see this'.

'That point of view is you're looking down on the earth and looking up into space but you're also looking up at the future and looking down at the past,' he said during a post-flight press briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Chit/Chat; History
KEYWORDS: austinpowers; bezos; blueorigin; iconichero; phallicspaceship; space; startrek; williamshatner
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To: Pollard

True in the original live series but in the one season animated series done in the 1970s it did once I think.


41 posted on 10/14/2021 4:56:08 AM PDT by xp38
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To: Trillian
The most fascinating part of this to me was the perfection of this whole exercise: I remember the decades it took to make rockets reliable enough to not blow up and the decades it took to keep soft, squishy people to survive launches. And here we have a system so reliable they could risk famous 90-year old passengers, using computers to control every aspect of the flight.

On the down side, these advances also mean that Botswana can have intercontinental warhead delivery systems, should they choose to.

42 posted on 10/14/2021 5:07:45 AM PDT by Chainmail (Frater magnus te spectat)
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To: Berosus

It was beautiful to see.


43 posted on 10/14/2021 5:52:41 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: Berosus

-—351,186 feet above Earth’s surface——

So that’s only about 70 miles. Where does space begin?

Is space different from outer space?

We can look to Shatner now as a mentor who follows Clint’s admonition and “Don’t let the old man in”


44 posted on 10/14/2021 6:00:43 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Like BLM, Joe Biden is a Domestic Enemy )
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To: Telepathic Intruder

He was simply saying that the atmosphere and magnetic shielding generated by the Earth is an incredibly small layer that is completely transparent and delicate, yet, competently separates and protects all known life in the Universe from the dark, cold vacuum of space, which would mean death for all.

Even the light he was able to see permanently leaves the Earth, to never again provide its life-giving characteristic.


45 posted on 10/14/2021 6:06:43 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: Political Junkie Too
"Gravity is still pulling on one's organs the same was as on the ground."

Einstein would disagree with you on this.

Why Free-Falling Makes You Weightless, Even In the Presence Of Gravity

46 posted on 10/14/2021 6:17:55 AM PDT by BDParrish (God called, He said He'd take you back!)
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To: bert
"The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) agrees with Blue Origin and defines the beginning of space as the Kármán line. The recognized imaginary boundary of space is at an altitude of about 62 miles." (WTSP -Tampa Bay TV)

"Broadly, most experts say that space starts at the point where orbital dynamic forces become more important than aerodynamic forces,..." (Nat'l Geographic)

Link to WTSP Article:
"Where Does Space Begin?

47 posted on 10/14/2021 6:32:03 AM PDT by BDParrish (God called, He said He'd take you back!)
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To: BDParrish

Thanks for that.....


48 posted on 10/14/2021 6:47:43 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Like BLM, Joe Biden is a Domestic Enemy )
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To: albie

He doesn’t even look 80.

I watched the post-flight interview at the launch pad on Daily Mail and they said something very interesting. On hitting the atmosphere, they said they suddenly took at least 5g and probably more. It tells me that they can’t launch the capsule any higher than they are now because the g’s would be too high when they hit the atmosphere. Flying any higher would require a completely different flight profile where they enter the atmosphere at a shallower angle.

On another note, does anyone know if the system has a launch abort capability? I didn’t see anything that stood out as one.


49 posted on 10/14/2021 6:49:45 AM PDT by Windcatcher (Time to fly the other black flag -- one of no quarter for Marxists.)
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To: Political Junkie Too

# In true outer space, people are far enough from the gravitational pull of the earth to be in true weightlessness.

Well, yes and no. Even folk in true orbit on the ISS are really not experiencing true weightlessness. They are still technically ‘falling’, though their path (hopefully) never actually loses height, because the combination of their speed and height equals the curvature of the earth.

The folks who went to the moon did actually experience true weightlessness, as they actually reached the point where the the earth and moon’s gravity were in balance.

You’re pretty much going to have =some= gravitational effects anywhere in the solar system, though you might not be able to actually notice it.


50 posted on 10/14/2021 7:12:49 AM PDT by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: alexander_busek

Remember the good old days when editors actually proof-read what was submitted?


51 posted on 10/14/2021 8:25:19 AM PDT by JaguarXKE (Liberalism is a cancer on our nation.)
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To: ConservativeMind

I guess. I could tell he was profoundly affected, though. I would probably be like “That’s it? I was expecting more. I don’t suppose I could get my money back…”


52 posted on 10/14/2021 10:07:48 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: MayflowerMadam
But he IS an actor.

As long as you hide the furniture before he shows up, so it doesn't get all chewed.

53 posted on 10/14/2021 10:14:31 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: Political Junkie Too
In true outer space, people are far enough from the gravitational pull of the earth to be in true weightlessness. Blood flow is harder without the pull of gravity, digestion is harder, excretion is harder, and so on and on.

I don't mean to pile on (well, yes I do...) but you must realize that a body orbiting the Earth (like the International Space Station) is still fully under the influence of Earth's gravity, and so are the people inside. Both are just in a perpetual state of free-fall around the Earth, so their relative motion with each other gives the illusion of zero gravity.

Even the Apollo Astronauts who went to the Moon were under 99% of Earth's gravitational pull, which is why the Moon orbits the Earth.

Descending inside the fuselage of an aircraft is exactly the same as orbiting the Earth.

54 posted on 10/14/2021 12:07:36 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: Yo-Yo
I don't mean to pile on (well, yes I do...)

Don't worry... I deserve it. I realized my late-night posting mistake. 🚀 🌕

-PJ

55 posted on 10/14/2021 12:30:45 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
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To: Renfrew

As one of our posters has already noted - Sadly, a great many people only know Jesus as a swear word.


56 posted on 10/14/2021 3:00:14 PM PDT by HeadOn (Love God. Lead your family. Be a man.)
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To: Yo-Yo

True the experiments on the ISS and the old Sky Lab are technically done in micro gravity not true weightlessness. Been awhile but lots of old SciFi I read had centrifugal force used to add a bit of “gravity” for the human body and other things to work in true zero gravity.


57 posted on 10/14/2021 3:30:00 PM PDT by nomorelurker
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