After decades playing Captain Kirk in Star Trek, it’s William Shatner’s turn to boldly go where no man has gone before.

In a classic case of life imitating art, the legendary actor is going to be beamed into space on a mission next Tuesday.

The 90-year-old will become the oldest person to ever go into space – fulfilling a lifelong dream in the process.

He said: “I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle.”

While Spock and Leonard McCoy won’t be by his side for the voyage, Shatner will have three crewmates to keep him company on Blue Origin’s NS-18 spacecraft.

He’ll be joined by Audrey Powers, who has played an instrumental role in the years-long process to get the New Shepard rocket cleared for human flight.

She previously served as a flight controller for NASA, and amassed 2,000 hours of console time in mission control for the International Space Station programme.

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Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries – two paying customers – will also be onboard for the epic voyage.

They will blast off from West Texas and their journey will last for 10 minutes, reaching a height of 66 miles (106km).

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Blue Origin is a space travel company launched by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and this latest journey comes three months after its successful first human flight.

Bezos was joined by his younger brother Mark, alongside 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen, Blue Origin’s first customer.

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In other news, a stratospheric ballooning company has announced that it plans to take people to the edge of space – travelling to an altitude of 30,000m (100,000ft) in an experience that will last up to 12 hours.

World View’s flights are set to begin in 2024 – and while prices come in at $50,000 (£36,704) a seat, the company argues this is still much cheaper than what’s on offer from the likes of SpaceX and Blue Origin.

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