"Captain Kirk" actor William Shatner was in space.

Blue Origin has launched space travelers into orbit for the second time. This time, actor William Shatner, best known for his role as "Captain Kirk" in the television series "Star Trek," was aboard the space capsule. Shatner, who is now 90 years old, is the oldest person to have ever traveled in space.

The former actor was among the four civilian crew members that took part in the Wednesday afternoon launch in Texas. Blue Origin's launch facility is around 20 miles outside of Van Horn. Former NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen, entrepreneur Glen de Vries, who invests in clinical research, and Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice president and engineer, accompanied Shatner on the trip to space.

Shatner, unlike Boshuizen and De Vries, did not pay for his ticket, according to The New York Times. According to the publication, he was invited as a "guest" of Blue Origin. The group's vice president was likewise exempt from purchasing a ticket.

The eleven-minute space tour aboard the 18.3-meter-high, completely autonomous "New Shepard" spaceship was planned. According to Blue Origin, the three astronauts and one female astronaut experienced weightlessness for three to four minutes at this period. The space capsule passed above the Kármán line, which is 100 kilometers above the Earth's surface. This line is a fictitious, universally recognized barrier that denotes the start of space.

The fact that an icon of space travel pop culture, William Shatner, was travelling into space, is considered as a high-profile advertising effort by analysts of the space tourism sector. After all, Blue Origin is vying for clients willing to pay with two other companies: Billionaires Elon Musk and Richard Branson have also organized tourist space flights through their own enterprises, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc.

Bezos' company may also benefit from some publicity: in an open letter, former and current Blue Origin employees highlighted safety concerns, accusing the company of prioritizing speed and cost reductions over quality control and proper staffing. Employees also complained about a hostile and misogynistic work environment.

The Federal Aviation Administration of the United States declared two weeks ago that it would investigate the issues.