Star Trek actor William Shatner has responded to Prince William’s criticism of space tourism and has said the future king “has got the wrong idea.”
The 90-year-old has recently made the news after becoming the oldest man to reach space when he blasted off on Wednesday (October 13) with three other people in Blue Origin’s rocket, owned by Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos.
However, it seems the Duke of Cambridge wasn’t so impressed with the feat as he recently shared his general concern with space tourism.
Despite the royal not naming them directly, Bezos along with Space X owner and fellow billionaire Elon Musk continue to progress with their space programmes.
Prince William told the BBC: “We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live.
“I think that ultimately is what sold it for me - that really is quite crucial to be focusing on this [planet] rather than giving up and heading out into space to try and think of solutions for the future.”
“We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet”
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) October 14, 2021
In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Prince William suggests entrepreneurs should focus on saving Earth rather than engaging in space tourismhttps://t.co/P7czJarr7z pic.twitter.com/NeVLxY9QPq
The royal added how he has “absolutely no interest” in going as high as space, and believes there was a “fundamental question” over the carbon cost of space flights.
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While the Duke of Cambridge believes space tourism is the problem, Shatner on the other hand thinks space travel could provide our planet with some answers, and shared this opinion in response.
In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Tonight, Shatner said of Prince William: “He’s a lovely Englishman. He’s going to be king of England one day.
“He’s a lovely, gentle, educated man, but he’s got the wrong idea.”
Shatner continued: “The idea here is not to go, ‘Yeah, look at me. I’m in space.’
“I would tell the prince, and I hope the prince gets the message, this is a baby step into the idea of getting industry up there, so that [we can get] all those polluting industries, especially, for example, the industries that make electricity... off of Earth.”
The actor best known for playing Captain Kirk on Star Trek then provided an example.
“We’ve got all the technology, the rockets, to send the things up there... You can build a base 250, 280 miles above the Earth and send that power down here, and they catch it, and they then use it, and it’s there,” he continued. “All it needs is... somebody as rich as Jeff Bezos [to say], ‘Let’s go up there.’”
“The prince is missing the point,” the 90-year-old explained. “The point is these are the baby steps to show people [that] it’s very practical. You can send somebody like me up into space.”
Although Shatner did concede that there are problems on Earth that need to be addressed, he believes both those issues and space travel can both be done.
“So fix some of the stuff down here,” he said. “... But we can curl your hair and put lotion on your face at the same time.”
It seems the two famous William’s will have to agree to disagree...
