Black ugliness and the covering of blue: William Shatner’s suborbital flight to “death”by Deana L. Weibel Monday, October 18, 2021
A photo 53 years in the making. Left is a clip showing Captain Kirk (center) on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise from the original Star Trek third season episode “Spock’s Brain” which first aired in 1968. To the right is William Shatner looking out at the Earth from space while onboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft on October 13, 2021. Photos courtesy CBS and Blue Origin. Photomontage by Kipp Teague and Karl Tate.Is outer space a horrifying place? It depends on whom you ask. As seen from Earth, clear nights with the Moon, Venus, and the Milky Way ablaze make space seem like a beautiful, unreachable dream. Horror movies, on the other hand, populate the celestial reaches with terrifying aliens that kill human beings or use us to nefarious ends. Most astronauts speak of the beauty of space, especially the gorgeous vision of Earth, whether seen from the Moon or from a much closer orbit. Few have spoken of space as “death,” the way William Shatner put it upon his return from his Blue Origin flight on October 13, 2021.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4265/1