Blue Origin launch – as it happened: William Shatner launched into space on historic flight

One of the big question marks over today’s launch has been safety, following claims from former Blue Origin employees that certain protocols were not being met.

“We’re not in a test period anymore, we spent five years testing and now we are in the passenger phase,” the live stream host says. “Safety has never mattered more.”

Here’s how the rocket currently looks on the launchpad in West Texas.

There’s around 18,000 viewers currently watching the stream, which is considerably less than the live streams hosted by SpaceX for its launches. Tests of the Mars-bound Starship prototypes alone receive hundreds of thousands of live viewers.

Is interest in space tourism waning? Or are such trips already becoming normalised? We’re entering an exciting new era of space travel if that’s the case.

With 90 minutes to go until lift-off, Blue Origin has begun its live stream of the launch.

The live webcast of New Shepard Mission NS-18 is currently just some text on a starry background, soundtracked by some pleasant sounding stringed instruments, but you can expect coverage from the launchpad imminently.

You can find it by scrolling up to the top of this page. If you scroll down again, you’ll still be able to see the video while also following the live blog.

William Shatner gave a nod to that unforgettable performance in a series of tweets posted last night before bedtime.

The nonagenarian is an avid tweeter, and was one of the platform’s earliest adopters back in 2008.

Since then he has tweeted more than 100,000 times, averaging more than 20 tweets per day.

He’s not able to bring his phone on today’s flight but he claims to have “prearranged a little something” for when he’s in space.

With just over 3.5 hours until lift-off, I’ve been killing some time enjoying William Shatner’s under-appreciated side career as a singer.

While “singing” might be stretching the definition of the term, this rendition of Elton John’s Rocket Man is one for the ages.

“Packed my bags last night pre-flight, zero hour, 9am,” he sang, more than 40 years ago at the Science Fiction Film Awards, foreshadowing the exact time of today’s lift-off.

“I’m a rocket, man.”

You can watch it here:

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William Shatner and the rest of the Blue Origin NS-18 crew have penned some postcards ahead of their trip to space later.

The Star Trek actor writes: “This is the most important and practical concept for space use and for aiding in saving planet Earth.”

The three other passengers show the space-inspired pictures drawn by students. They were selected from thousands of postcards from Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future, which aims to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and “help invent the future of life in space”.

Here’s what to expect from today’s launch:

T-7.5 hrs: Rocket rolls out to launch pad

T-3 hrs: Propellant load begins

T-45 mins: Go for astronaut load & proceed to the launch tower

T-35 mins: Astronauts begin load into the crew capsule

T-24 mins: Crew Capsule hatch closed

We’re currently at just over T-4 hours, meaning the rocket is already at the launchpad. The live stream is set to be broadcast 90 minutes ahead of lift-off, in around two and a half hours time.

Blue Origin has once again been forced to push back today’s launch due to windy weather – but only by 30 minutes.

The lift-off is now scheduled for 9am CDT (3pm BST), with weather at this time currently looking promising for launch.

It will take place at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One, near the West Texas town of Van Horn, where forecasts from Accuweather predict wind falling from 11km/h to 7km/h between 8am and 9am local time.

Here’s how the latest weather forecast looks for the time of launch.

Blue Origin has cleared its New Shepard NS-18 mission for launch.

“New Shepard is go for launch!” Blue Origin announced.

“The mission team has completed the Flight Readiness Evaluation prior to NS-18. This is our final meeting with the engineers and Mission Control team to ensure all systems are go for launch.”

Very little training was necessary for today’s flight, as the entire thing is automated. However, the passengers do need to know what to do in case of an emergency, as well as how to move around safely in zero gravity.