On Wednesday afternoon William Shatner, Dr Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries were launched into space aboard Blue Origin’s NS-18 mission.

The crew spent just 10 minutes in flight and went above the Kármán line which is the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space. The NS-18 capsule containing the crew touched down in West Texas.

What we want to highlight though is the stark difference between Shatner’s experience and Bezos’. While Bezos emerged like a gladiator that triumphed at the Colosseum, Shatner was more muted and had clearly experienced what is commonly known as the overview effect.

The overview effect is a shift in awareness experienced by astronauts while viewing Earth from outer space. Many astronauts have said that from their vantage point Earth looks fragile and needs to be protected.

Emerging from the NS-18 capsule an emotional Shatner said, “It was unbelievable. To see the blue colour whip by and now you’re staring into blackness, that’s the thing. The covering of blue, this sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have over us, we think oh that’s blue sky and suddenly you shoot through it all of a sudden as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep and you’re looking into blackness, black ugliness and then you look down and there’s the blue down there and the black up there and it’s just, there is mother Earth and comfort and is there death? I don’t know.”

Yeah he stuttered and stumbled a bit, but the man had just returned from space so it’s understandable.

It’s clear that Shatner was moved by the experience and said that everybody needs to see what he saw.

You can see Shatner relaying his experience to Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos here.

Blue Origin accused of being toxic

Unfortunately Blue Origin’s second space flight wasn’t the only thing grabbing headlines. The company has been accused of fostering a toxic workplace.

A group of 20 current and former Blue Origin employees published a blog in which the company was accused of sexism, and harassment.

“Another former executive frequently treated women in a condescending and demeaning manner, calling them ‘baby girl,’ ‘baby doll,’ or ‘sweetheart’ and inquiring about their dating lives. His inappropriate behavior was so well known that some women at the company took to warning new female hires to stay away from him, all while he was in charge of recruiting employees. It appeared to many of us that he was protected by his close personal relationship with Bezos—it took him physically groping a female subordinate for him to finally be let go,” reads an excerpt from the extensive blog post.

You can read the post in full here, but we warn you that it’s a rather harrowing read.

[Image – Blue Origin]