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posted by
martyb
on Monday September 27 2021, @05:00PM
from the will-he-"go-boldly"-or-"boldly-go"? dept.
from the will-he-"go-boldly"-or-"boldly-go"? dept.
Captain Kir... ahem, William Shatner is riding the next Blue Origin trip to space. The Guardian says.
William Shatner will boldly go into space with Bezos’s Blue Origin – report:
"He was once Starfleet’s youngest captain, a fearless explorer leading the USS Enterprise on an intergalactic odyssey. Now the actor who famously portrayed Captain James Tiberius Kirk on Star Trek for four decades is reportedly set to boldly go on a real-life space adventure – at the age of 90.
"According to TMZ, William Shatner will blast off from Earth next month aboard a Blue Origin capsule owned by the Amazon founder Jezz[sic - ty SW!] Bezos, with the 15-minute joyride being filmed for a documentary."
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William Shatner is Going to Space -- For Real!
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(1)
The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words
return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Tork on Monday September 27 2021, @05:05PM (11 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday September 27 2021, @06:00PM
Either
that
or we
may just
twitch from
having to listen
to
him.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @06:31PM (4 children)
Around the planet? LOL Blueballs Origin can't make it to orbit, idiot.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Tork on Monday September 27 2021, @06:51PM (2 children)
Boy I hope I picked the right team or I'm doomed to an eternity of posting as AC to apologize for his fails!
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @11:14PM (1 child)
Elon Musk can suck my asshole. But the fact remains that Shatner is not going to orbit. Dumbass.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Tork on Monday September 27 2021, @11:17PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 5, Funny) by shortscreen on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:27AM
You haven't considered what will happen when the Captain runs down to engineering and gives the order to reroute power from the damper field integrity matrix to the vector amplification array and invert the spectrum modulator device. Not only will they make it to orbit, but they'll rescue the stranded alien women who were trapped in the space-time anomaly.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Monday September 27 2021, @07:17PM (1 child)
No, it's worse than that: While in space, they'll get a distress call, and even though it's supposed to be a photo op with a bunch of dignitaries on board, they'll respond to it and rescue the passengers on the other ship but sending Shatner on an adventure that will end with him getting crushed by a bridge.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday September 27 2021, @07:22PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday September 27 2021, @08:52PM
I think it is more likely to be CON rather than Khan.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:04AM (1 child)
Shirley they'll need to uprate the booster.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Tork on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:30AM
My name's not Sh... hang on, someone's at the door. Pppssshhshhhhhhsshhhhh....
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday September 27 2021, @05:08PM (12 children)
Instead of focusing the efforts of your company on 'not-quite-space' amusement joyrides for the super rich, how about working on your BE-4 engines? How about getting your New Glenn rocket working and put something in orbit?
It would be a shame if ULA were to go under because you can't deliver on your grandiose promises, but instead substitute an inferior rocket of lesser value that has no practical benefit to humanity because it cannot reach orbit.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 27 2021, @07:32PM (11 children)
Funny thing about how the world actually works... celebrity joyrides and publicity stunts are done for a very specific reason: they shake loose backers, support, investment, the money it takes to do the technical stuff.
We had the "know how" to put a colony on Mars before 1980, what we lacked was the public support to do so. The production budget of Entertainment Tonight and similar shows could easily have funded a moon base by now.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 27 2021, @08:26PM (10 children)
Joyrides are all well and good. If they actually put people into space, I might actually cheer a little. But atmospheric flight is old hat. This doesn't even compare to Orville and Wilbur's various atmospheric flights, because Bezel Head can't even get into space.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 4, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 27 2021, @09:31PM (5 children)
How's Bozos and Musk compared to the Gagarin flight?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:37AM (4 children)
Musk is in the running. I mean, he's not setting any firsts for distance from earth, unless you want to bring that Roadster into the discussion. But, he's actually getting into space. Or his vehicles are. SpaceX has a little ways to go to catch up to Gagarin, but they are in the running.
The rest of those rich assholes trying to make names for themselves can't get high enough to kiss Gagarin's ass.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @07:56AM (2 children)
Gagarin flew once. Musk's boosters are re-usable. And with Starship, any achievement of Gagarin is left in the dust.
or fast enough :) Agreed on that.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:24PM (1 child)
Let's go back to standing on the shoulders of giants. Without Russia's Vostok 1 and USA's Mercury, Musk wouldn't have any shoulders to stand on.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:30PM
Kind of sad but I suppose it's the way things go that in a few years very few will ever think of or even know about early attempts to reach space. There will be no one alive who can remember the fascination, anxiety and emotion felt by those watching a manned rocket launch, either live or on TV.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:07PM
The civilians on the SpaceX flight went higher than Hubble. SpaceX is actually IN space. But I'd ride Bezos' rocket, it's close enough for rock and roll.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Monday September 27 2021, @09:45PM (3 children)
Yeah, I personally have no interest in a suborbital flight, expect possibly as an alternative to taking an airplane to actually go somewhere (as in suborbital Starship plans...)
However, it still serves the purpose of generating interest and creating a market for such rides, and you can hardly blame Blue Origin and Virgin for trying to cash in now while they still have a product people are willing to buy. They built their business model around joyrides, and took too long getting ready. Once SpaceX really enters the game it will be extremely difficult for anyone else to compete.
NASA's price for a Crew Dragon launch is supposedly $210M for up to 7 people, and that probably has some huge profit margins baked in. While I've heard New Shepard seats are going for around $30M per seat, or about $180M/launch. I wouldn't be surprised if SpaceX could already profitably deliver an orbital joyride for less than the others are charging for suborbital. And of course, once Starship gets crew-rated there's liable to be an order of magnitude decrease in costs (or at least such an increase in profits margins), with the goal of eventually bringing the cost of a seat to orbit down comparable to an intercontinental plane flight. (maybe first class).
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Monday September 27 2021, @10:55PM (2 children)
Your numbers are way off.
New Shepard is more like $250,000. A seat got auctioned off for $2.6 million (the special first manned flight). Virgin Galactic is also $250,000.
https://www.space.com/blue-origin-new-shepard-spaceflight-auction-top-bid [space.com]
Given that New Shepard is fully reusable, it would be surprising if Starship could undercut it. But not impossible since maybe 100 people could be crammed into one, and it could probably be flown in a suborbital mode without needing the booster. And of course, you could get people onto the ISS or the Moon relatively cheaply with Starship, instead of a 10 minute suborbital joyride.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday September 27 2021, @11:55PM (1 child)
Odd - the first page of results I got searching for New Shepard seat prices are all around 30 million, but the next page started showing results with your prices.
At that price perhaps they will be able to maintain a market for a while, but it's still a limited window before Starship eats their cake. After all, Starship is also fully reusable, and focused on cost effectiveness as their primary goal, nothing less will make Mars colonization possible. Musk has repeatedly said Starship is targeting getting the price to orbit down to ~10/kg, consistent with his other claims that it will (eventually) be as cheap as a first class intercontinental flight, at several thousand dollars, or about 100 times cheaper than current Shepard prices. Granted that is almost certainly for 100+ passengers packed in, but at those prices you could still buy an entire private flight for the price of 1-2 Shepard seats at the current price.
As for going to the ISS or the Moon - ISS would be pretty cheap, if it still exists, but the Moon (or Mars) will take 5-10 launches for refueling, meaning something like 5-10x the cost. Still pretty cheap by today's standard just to orbit, but starting to get a bit outrageous for a middle-class holiday - getting more akin to the cost of passage to the Americas for a commoner back in the day.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 28 2021, @01:39AM
Well, just like some people go to Bora Bora, and some people go to the Tiki Bar on the local river, some people probably aren't interested in a full on orbital 2001 barfing my guts out for three weeks experience and getting to ride a rocket into the black is enough for them.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @05:46PM (20 children)
StarTrek aired during the Apollo missions and now half a century later, that envisioned space fairing future finally looks to be happening
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday September 27 2021, @05:54PM (17 children)
I would say it looks to be on the horizon.
What we're doing in space is still feels like the early days of aviation. Far from routine. Although I have to admit SpaceX sure makes it look easy, routine, safe, and possibly economical.
There are a lot of things that could get in the way still. Global warming. Drought. Famine. War. Government failure(s).
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Monday September 27 2021, @05:54PM (9 children)
There are a lot of things that could get in the way still. Global warming. Drought. Famine. War. Government failure(s), and Jeff Bezos.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday September 27 2021, @08:46PM (8 children)
Which, ironically, are all reasons to leave Earth.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Immerman on Monday September 27 2021, @09:53PM (7 children)
Not really. The most inhospitable places on Earth, even assuming worst-case scenario global warming, are still going to be lush and fertile paradises compared to anywhere else in the solar system.
Meanwhile, war or government failure at a scale large enough to be a problem for a large fraction of Earth-dwellers is likely to be devastating for any offworld colony dependent on imports from Earth for survival. And it's likely to take centuries before any offworld colony is self-sufficient enough to not need those imports. Or at least *really* benefit from them.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Reziac on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:21AM (1 child)
Indeed... probably the nearest living experience on Planet Earth is Antarctica during the off season.
Tho streetview shows me a tent city, so apparently summertime-Antarctica has become a tourist trap.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:02AM
Many interesting things have happened during the COVID pandemic: real estate prices are up, toilet paper got scarce, and penguin watching went viral. Who'd-a-knew?
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:59AM (1 child)
I was trying to be funny. I guess sometimes subtle sarcasm isn't easily perceived.
On the serious note, your points are all good and spot-on.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:33PM
Good sarcasm, subtle or not, is based on the truth.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 29 2021, @12:05AM (2 children)
The problem with the "Global warming. Drought. Famine. War. Government failure(s), and Jeff Bezos." is not the disasters in question, but humanity's highly suboptimal responses. You can avoid that by not being there.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday September 29 2021, @02:51AM (1 child)
Except that wherever you go, you take humanity and our sub-optimal responses with you.
It's not the unwashed masses steering the boat towards those sub-optimal responses here, and it will be the same breed of powerful individuals shaping personally profitable public policy elsewhere.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 29 2021, @04:18AM
Well, that's where decentralization and not-being-there comes in. I also think that space-based civilizations would have to develop a lot of infrastructure before they'd be capable of a lot of the Earth-side dysfunction.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @09:00PM (1 child)
Funny thing with that horizon, you walk towards it and it fucking moves.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 28 2021, @01:36PM
You must be thinking of using Nuclear Fusion for power. (not the same as nuclear fishin')
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday September 27 2021, @09:37PM (1 child)
There are a bunch of technical problems we have yet to address, like the really really big one of the "1 light-year per year" speed limit. As things stand, it would take us years to get to Mars, much less Alpha Centauri or Qo'nos.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Tuesday September 28 2021, @12:13AM
Mars is only a few light-minutes away, and an optimal Hohmann transfer orbit (the slowest, maximally fuel efficient option) takes only 259 days - half the period of an elliptical orbit spanning between Earth and Mars. Getting that down to 3 to 6 months is eminently doable with existing technology, provided your payload is small enough.
Other stars are a completely different story, the closest is indeed a few light years away, or about 100,000x further away than Mars.
Light speed isn't a remotely relevant speed limit to *any* existing transportation technology - sounds like the Parker Solar Probe currently holds the record as the fastest spacecraft ever, at 153,454 miles per hour - and that's only 0.0002% of light's 670,000,000mph. And you have to be approaching 90% of light speed before you even start noticing any significant relativistic effects.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:18PM (2 children)
The horizon? Most of it is already here. Uhura's bluetooth earpiece? Yep. Doors that open and close magically? Old hat. Flat screen, color photo-realistic computers you can talk to and they talk back? FLIP PHONES??
None of that existed in 1966.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:24PM
In the Star Trek TOS 3rd season episode Requiem for Methuselah, there is a scene where someone is looking at what I would swear is a modern flat screen TV set.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:25PM
What I was referring to as "on the horizon" is planet earth being a space fairing civilization.
I think we're just in the infancy of that.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @06:36PM (1 child)
It's a suborbital hop dumbass. Tourists in orbit happened decades ago. How much is Jeff paying you to make posts so breathlessly retarded?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @01:13AM
"Double dumbass on you!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @06:01PM (2 children)
Where are my engines Jeff?? -Bruno
(Score: 2) by Samantha Wright on Monday September 27 2021, @06:08PM (1 child)
*Jezz, according to TFS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @06:42PM
Well zuck you!
(Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Monday September 27 2021, @07:21PM
Paying passenger or PR-stunt from Bezos? Oh ok perhaps he is paying to be in the 15 minute promo.
First and last time he is in space before his ashes are launched into the sun (or space)?
Waiting for images of Shatner cascade vomiting for 15 minutes ...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Mockingbird on Monday September 27 2021, @07:27PM (1 child)
"He's dead, Jim!" Seriously, what is the PR downside of a nonagenarian kicking the bucket on a sub-orbital rocket ride? Not high enough for a proper space burial. Fireball over Nevada?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 27 2021, @08:20PM
None and if they check for Klingons we'll know if the Shat lived up to his name.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Monday September 27 2021, @08:06PM (1 child)
Hopefully things go well and there is no monster on the wing. P
I'm sure they will get that ship down... and down safe. (*a safe falls on the floor*).
Does space even have enough room for his ego?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:15AM
I was wondering that about his toupee.
I hope to god their launch music is his version of Rocket Man.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday September 27 2021, @08:08PM
That's debatable!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Monday September 27 2021, @08:14PM
Love to see the 2 of them on the balcony, trying to light their cigars, wondering why they can't breath.
/ just kidding, the wife and I caught Boston Legal in the last season and loved it
// back then you couldn't stream it, nor did libraries carry DVDs. So, unless you had $$$$ to waste you were SOL
/// Amazon is streaming it, I'm loving it. This is Shatner's best acting. Unless he's acting normal, in which case....
I came. I saw. I forgot why I came.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Monday September 27 2021, @10:43PM (1 child)
Unfortunately, Audrey Meadows [wikipedia.org] aka Alice Kramden [wikipedia.org] is not around to go. I always thought that one day she would end up on the moon.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:05AM
Luckily, though, Bill Mumy will be staying at home to ensure they don't end up lost in space.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 28 2021, @01:38PM
Shatner is hoping the temporal nexus will come take him.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:45PM
I sincerely hope he does a live stream "singing" Rocket Man while in space.