Blue Origin returns to space with Captain Kirk from 'Star Trek' on board

By Denise Chow -

More than 50 years after he debuted as beloved Captain James T. Kirk on the original

, William Shatner sets out to travel boldly to the edge of space.

The 90-year-old actor is scheduled to launch on Wednesday aboard a rocket and capsule developed by Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

If successful, the sightseeing trip will make Shatner the oldest person to ever reach space.

"I've heard about space for a long time," he said in a statement published earlier this month.

“I am taking the opportunity to see it for myself.

What a miracle ”, he added.

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Shatner and three other crew members - Audrey Powers, vice president of mission and flight operations for Blue Origin, and two paying clients, Glen de Vries and Chris Boshuizen - will travel in the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket and capsule to the edge of space.

Takeoff is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET, and the flight is expected to take about 10 minutes.

In an interview with TODAY on NBC News, Noticias Telemundo's sister network, last week, Shatner spoke of his anticipation for the next flight.

Actor William Shatner answers questions from journalists after delivering a speech at the New England Institute of Technology graduation ceremony in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 6, 2018.Steven Senne / AP

“I am going to see the vastness of space and the extraordinary miracle of our Earth.

How fragile it is compared to the forces at work in the universe.

That's what I'm looking for, ”he explained.

Shatner's journey will be the second Blue Origin release with an exclusively civilian crew.

The company's maiden flight in July was a high-profile, high-stakes event, with Bezos, his brother and two other passengers on board.

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The New Shepard rocket and capsule are designed for suborbital travel, not actually going into orbit around Earth, but instead flying to the edge of space, at an altitude of more than 65 miles (98 kilometers), where passengers can experience about four minutes of weightlessness.

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This Wednesday's flight will launch from a location in West Texas, southeast of El Paso.

Upon liftoff, the rocket will accelerate into space at three times the speed of sound.

At an altitude of 250,000 feet, the New Shepard capsule will separate, carrying Shatner and his crew members to the edge of space.

The ship will then parachute down and land again in the Texas desert.

Shatner's expedition is the latest in a series of tourist flights into space.

Nine days before Bezos flew to the edge of space, British billionaire Richard Branson completed his own suborbital journey, aboard a rocket-powered vehicle developed by his own space tourism company, Virgin Galactic.

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Neither Blue Origin nor Virgin Galactic have announced the price of their suborbital flights, but tickets are expected to cost several hundred thousand dollars.

And in addition to trips to the edge of space, wealthy individuals may soon be able to pay for orbital experiences and longer stays in low gravity.

Last month, SpaceX, the space flight company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, launched four private passengers into Earth orbit on a three-day expedition.

That flight made history as the first orbital launch with a fully civilian crew.

SpaceX is also preparing to launch three private passengers who paid $ 55 million each to the International Space Station in early 2022.