Captain Kirk’s trek through space with Blue Origin

Brian Sozzi and Julie Hyman break down Blue Origin’s latest launch into space with William Shatner.

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Speaking of drama, we are awaiting the launch of the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket. T minus 2 minutes right now. Remember, William Shatner of "Star Trek" fame, of course, is aboard that rocket and, at 90 years old, will be the oldest person ever to travel to space.

With him is Audrey Powers, who's a Blue Origin vice president; Chris Boshuizen, who's cofounder of Planet Labs; and Glen de Vries, chief executive and co-founder of Medidata Solutions. So there are four folks on that rocket.

Remember, it is a suborbital rocket. The trip-- the round trip I believe lasts about 11 minutes, and it goes up about 65 miles, allows those folks to experience weightlessness, and then comes back down, Brian Sozzi. And we are less than 90 seconds away from launch right now.

BRIAN SOZZI: Julie, I should have broke out my pointy Spock ears here for the moment. I totally dropped the ball on that one. But wow. I mean, I guess this all means we're getting just a little bit older here. I remember watching repeats of William Shatner in "Star Trek" as a kid. But really, I mean, it can't get any cooler than this.

JULIE HYMAN: Yes. I have to admit to being a big fan of classic "Star Trek" episodes as well.

The pictures we're looking at, by the way, are southeast of El Paso. That's where the launch site is. And then we are going to see the New Shepard capsule separate from the rocket at an altitude of 250,000 feet. They will then go to the edge of space and then descend under parachute and land again in the Texas desert.

And, you know, we've seen a few of these now as we get to T-minus 24 seconds. And it's becoming-- it's not becoming more commonplace. I was going to say it's becoming more common. It's becoming--

BRIAN SOZZI: It's still a little weird.

JULIE HYMAN: It's happening more. But the cool factor, I think safe to say for most of us, is not going away.

We are T-minus 7 seconds now to launch. Let's just sit back and watch this rocket take off.

- Engines start. 2, 1.

JULIE HYMAN: And there we go. We have launch.

BRIAN SOZZI: Wow.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, definitely doesn't lose the cool factor, does it, Brian Sozzi?

BRIAN SOZZI: Looks like a move.

JULIE HYMAN: So again, William Shatner there, a.k.a. Captain James Tiberius Kirk from the show-- that's what the T is for. I don't know if you were aware of that, Brian Sozzi-- in that rocket there, Blue Origin. That's the feed they're providing. People can watch the whole, entire launch if they want on the Blue Origin website. But definitely cool stuff here.

And, you know, obviously this comes back to the commercialization of space flight. We don't know exactly how much it costs for regular individuals to get on board these rockets and head to space, but that is the path here, in addition to potentially also doing refueling and other kinds of trips to the International Space Station. Obviously a big part of the business of space is also satellite launches. And so all of that part of what is effectively a new and burgeoning industry-- or not new. Satellites have been going up, but commercial spaceflight is certainly a new part of that industry.