Blue Origin to send William Shatner to space as Russia films movie scenes on ISS - "Yes, it's true; I'm going to be a 'Rocket man!'" the 90-year-old Shatner tweeted.

He added: "It's never too late to experience new things."

Mr Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is a huge fan of the sci-fi series and even had a cameo as a high-ranking alien in the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond.

His rocket company invited Shatner to fly as its guest.

Shatner's flight will last just 10 minutes and reach no higher than about 106 kilometres before his capsule parachutes back to the desert floor, not far from where it took off.

Shatner will become the oldest person to go to space.

He'll wind up being the second actor to reach space this month, with Russia sending Yulia Peresild to the International Space Station for almost two weeks of moviemaking.

'An incredible chance'

As previously reported on PortMac.News, Peresild and director Klim Shipenko are set to blast off from Kazakhstan on Tuesday local time in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft together with cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, a veteran of three space missions.

After 12 days on the space station, Peresild and Shipenko will return to Earth with another Russian cosmonaut.

The crew plans to film segments of a new movie, titled Challenge, about a surgeon summoned to rush to the space station to save a crew member who has a heart condition.

Speaking at a news conference at the Russian launch facility, Peresild acknowledged that the training for the mission was gruelling but described it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"It's a miracle, an incredible chance," she said.

Shipenko, 38, has made several commercially successful movies, including Kholop (Serf), a 2019 movie that set a Russian box office record. 

Space tourism taking off:

Space tourism is picking up steam fast.

Virgin Galactic carried founder Richard Branson to the edge of space with five others in July, followed nine days later by Bezos's space hop.

Elon Musk's SpaceX, meanwhile, launched its first private crew last month — a Pennsylvania entrepreneur who bought the three-day flight and took along two contest winners and a cancer survivor.

Virgin Galactic's ship launches from an airplane and requires two pilots.

Blue Origin and SpaceX's capsules are fully automated, but the passengers must pass medical screenings and, among other things, be able to quickly climb several flights of steps at the launch tower to get to the capsule — or out of it in an emergency.

This will be Blue Origin's second launch of a crew. Mr Bezos was on the debut flight on July 20.

He took along his brother, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands and 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk — the youngest and oldest to fly in space. Shatner will break that upper threshold by eight years.

Star Trek's history of space travel

"I've heard about space for a long time now. I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle," Shatner said in a statement.

Shatner played the role of the USS Starship Enterprise's commander for three seasons, from 1966 to 1969. He also portrayed Captain James T Kirk in seven movies, directing one of them.

He's currently the host and executive producer of a History Channel show, The UnXplained.

The ashes of two other Star Trek powerhouses — creator Gene Roddenberry and actor James Doohan, who played Scotty — rocketed into space years ago following their deaths.

Launching with Shatner are a former NASA engineer who founded a nanosatellite company and the co-founder of a software company specialising in clinical research. The two took part in the auction for a seat on the first flight.

That seat cost $28 million; Blue Origin isn't divulging any other ticket prices.

A fourth seat on the flight is going to Blue Origin's vice-president of mission and flight operations, who used to work for NASA as a space station flight controller.

A Blue Origin spokeswoman said Shatner, like the others, met all the company's health and physical requirements.

Below | Image from PortMac.News story on Russian ISS film shoot - CLICK HERE - for story.