See William Shatner go into space on Blue Origin live now

blue origin ns18 crew with William Shatner
(Image credit: Blue Origin)

If you want to know how to watch the Blue Origin launch today, it's possibly because William Shatner, best known as the actor behind Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, will be on board.

Liftoff was scheduled for 10 a.m. ET but as of now it looks like the launch will be around 10:30 am ET.  Check out the live stream below. 

Shatner will be boldly going where no man (his age) has gone before, as he takes his place on board Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket — thus making the 90-year old actor the oldest person to ever go into space. Blue Origin’s second crewed space flight was due to launch yesterday, but was postponed due to high winds. 

However, the trip has been given the all-clear to blast off later today (October 13), with a live stream broadcasting the whole thing for you to watch. So here’s how to watch the Blue Origin launch and see William Shatner go into space.

How to watch the Blue Origin launch

The launch will take place at Blue Origin’s launch site near Van Horn in Texas. Lift-off is currently scheduled for 9 a.m. local time (10 a.m. ET / 3 p.m. BST).

The live stream will kick off 90 minutes before launch, at 8.30 a.m. ET (1.30 p.m. BST), provided everything still happens on schedule. You can watch it on Blue Origin’s YouTube channel, or in the embedded video below.

Shatner will be joined by three other crewmates during the trip: Glen de Vries, vice chair for life sciences and healthcare at Dassault Systèmes; Audrey Powers, Blue Origin vice president of mission and flight operations; and Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of observation company Planet.

The whole trip will take 11 minutes, taking the four crew members above the 62-mile high Kármán line — the internationally agreed boundary of space. The capsule will then spend a few minutes in space, weightlessness and all, before returning to Earth and landing at Blue Origin’s West Texas facility.

The crew is scheduled to leave the Astronaut Training Center at 9.15 a.m. ET, ascending the launch tower and entering the capsule at 9.35 a.m. 

Lift off is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET, and the New Shepard booster is set to land eight minutes later. The capsule itself will land at 10.11 a.m., with the hatch opening at 10.22 a.m.; the livestream will then end at 10.30 a.m ET.

Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.