William Shatner said seeing Earth from space aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket was a deeply painful experience, but one that inspired him to appreciate the beauty of our planet.
In an excerpt from his new memoir, Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder, he revealed that the 91-year-old Star Trek star was hit with one of the “strongest feelings of pain” he has ever experienced.
Shatner wrote that instead of being filled with wonder, as he expected, the sight of Earth’s warm blue glow surrounded by the cold black of space left him feeling like he was at ‘a funeral’.
The excerpt was published by Variety reporter Marianne Williamson and offered deeper insight into Shatner’s reaction to his spaceflight with Blue Origin than he had previously revealed.
The revelations come a year after Shatner was seen to be visibly shaken immediately after emerging from the Blue Origin capsule in October 2021, when he burst into tears, telling Bezos: “Everybody needs to do this.”
Shatner wrote that he never realized how precious life on Earth was until he left it behind.
“I discovered that beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our little planet even deeper,” she wrote in her memoir.
He said that seeing the Earth so fragile filled him with sadness as he thought of how man is so flippant about its destruction.
“It was one of the strongest feelings of pain I have ever encountered. The contrast between the cruel coldness of space and the warm nurturing of the Earth below filled me with an overwhelming sadness. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration,” he added. . “Instead, it felt like a funeral.”
When Shatner first landed after landing on Blue Origin last year, he was seen to be deeply moved by the experience. As others celebrated by popping champagne corks and cheering, Shatner stood dejected with his hands in his pockets and staring at the floor. As Bezos approached him, Shatner burst into tears as he tried to explain to Bezos what he was feeling.
“Seeing the color blue go by and now you’re looking into the dark, that’s the thing. The blue cover, this pillowcase, this blanket, this blue quilt that we have around us, we’re like, ‘Oh, that’s sky blue.’ And then, Suddenly you shoot through everything, and you’re looking at the darkness, the black ugliness. As you look down, there’s your blue down there with the black up there. There’s Mother Earth and comfort and there’s is there death? No I know. Is this what death is like? I’m so full of emotion from what just happened. I hope I never recover from this,” he said, hugging Bezos.
ABC