Shatner hits back at Prince William’s space travel criticism
![](https://www.cityam.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Blue-Origin-Launch-1346450593.jpg?w=742)
William Shatner has shot down Prince William’s criticism of space travel.
He believes the royal is missing the point”.
The former Star Trek actor told Entertainment Tonight that Prince William was a “lovely, gentle, educated man” but that he has the “wrong idea” about going to space.
Shatner argues that space travel is the first step to getting “polluting industries” off Earth and that his trip was to show how “practical” space travel could be.
The 90-year old actor became the oldest man to reach space after blasting off from Texas on Tuesday.
The trip lasted about 10 minutes in a Blue Origin rocket, the company owned by Amazon multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos
His comments follow Prince William’s call for people to focus on fixing Earth rather than on efforts to leave it.
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.”
The royal recently launched the Earthshot prize, which is designed to award solutions to protect the planet and reduce the effects of global climate change.