Ross: Shatner’s emotional response over trip to space exactly what we needed to hear
Oct 14, 2021, 6:00 AM | Updated: 11:19 am
Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket latest space passengers, including Star Trek star William Shatner. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
(AP Photo/LM Otero)
My first crush — after Denise Rassulo in the third grade — was the space program.
I was 10 when Alan Shepard took that first flight, and I was fascinated by all the technology, and with how calm the astronauts were. John Glenn did loosen up a bit during his first orbit when he blurted out 鈥淢an, the view is tremendous,鈥� but that鈥檚 about as emotional as it got.
Even Neil Armstrong stepping onto the surface of the moon remained cool.
鈥淥ne small step for a man 鈥︹��
If I鈥檇 just landed on the moon, it would have been 鈥淗oly BLEEP we鈥檙e on the FRICKIN moon!” Which is why I could never be an astronaut.
Astronauts have to be unflappable, like all pilots. Every time I fly, the pilot comes on and says, 鈥淎h, we may have a little turbulence over Montana, we鈥檒l keep you posted,鈥� and he says it in that no-big-deal voice that tells you, “yup, no problem, this guy鈥檚 got it, plane will probably hold together just fine.”
Pilots and astronauts are all business. They have to be. But not William Shatner.
鈥淚s there death, is that the way death is?” after joining a Blue Origin crew and rocketing into space this week. “It was so moving.鈥�
He clearly enjoyed the view, but he also had an epiphany. He was talking about how quickly the rocket left the sky behind and took him into the blackness of the final frontier.
鈥淪o moving to me,” he described. “Unbelievable.鈥�
I know that no one chews the scenery like Shatner, and he got a free ticket so he does have an incentive to help Bezos sell seats, but I think he was sincere.
I noticed a little media mockery, I assume from people who鈥檝e been to space thousands of times. But not me. I鈥檝e never been fired off in a rocket ship 鈥� to say nothing of doing it at age 90.
I thought Shatner’s reaction is exactly what we need to hear, especially the part about the blackness and how thin that blue layer is.
The message of space travel isn鈥檛 how cool it is to be weightless — it鈥檚 that we are tiny creatures on this planetary oblate spheroid shielded from the blackness by nothing but a thin layer of invisible atmospheric paint, into which we keep dumping stuff that shouldn鈥檛 be there.
It got me thinking that it鈥檚 a trip that every billionaire who thinks he鈥檚 a master of the universe needs to take as soon as possible.
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