A fully autonomous Blue Origin rocketship lifted off on Wednesday from a launch site in rural West Texas on a planned suborbital flight that made "Star Trek" actor William Shatner the oldest person ever in space.

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Shatner, at age 90, became the oldest person ever in space during a flight that lasted about 11 minutes. Blue Origin said the four astronauts experienced about three to four minutes of weightlessness and travel above the internationally recognized boundary of space known as the Karman Line, about 62 miles (100 km) above Earth. The crew capsule returned to the Texas desert under parachutes.

Winds were light and skies were clear for the launch, which was conducted after two delays totaling roughly 45 minutes.

Joining Shatner – who embodied the promise of space travel in the classic 1960s TV series "Star Trek" and seven subsequent films – in the all-civilian crew were former NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen, clinical research entrepreneur Glen de Vries and Blue Origin vice president and engineer Audrey Powers.

It marked the second space tourism flight for Blue Origin, billionaire US businessman Jeff Bezos's company founded two decades ago.

Shatner, who turned 90 in March, has been acting since the 1950s and remains busy with entertainment projects and fan conventions. He is best known for starring as Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise on the classic 1960s TV series "Star Trek" and seven subsequent films about fictional adventures in outer space.

Shatner said there is both irony and symmetry to his space trip, having played a space explorer for decades and now actually becoming one.

"Having played the role of Captain Kirk... assigns me the knowledge that a futuristic astronaut would have, but I've always been consumed with curiosity," said Shatner in a Blue Origin video.

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The spacecraft Beresheet, built by non-profit SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, crashed on its final descent on Thursday, dashing Israel's hope of becoming the fourth country to manage a controlled lunar landing.

"I have had time to think, over the weekend, about what happened, and given all of the encouragement I got, and the support from people all over the world I have come tonight to announce a new project – Beresheet 2," SpaceIL president and high-tech billionaire Morris Kahn told Israel's Channel 12 TV.

The Google Lunar X Prize Competition, which offered $20 million for the first privately funded venture to make it to the moon, is what first drove SpaceIL to get Beresheet off the ground.

Beresheet made the final cut, but after several deadline extensions, the competition ended last year without a winner.

Private donors were already pledging funds for the new project, Kahn said, but he added that money should come from the public for "a project of the people of Israel".

"We will not rely on government support," he said.

The Beresheet 2 task force would convene on Sunday, he said: "We began something that we shall complete, and we will place our flag on the moon."

IAI said in a statement it would be happy to be part of further space missions in partnership with SpaceIL under Kahn's leadership."

So far, only three nations have succeeded in carrying out a controlled landing on the lunar surface – the United States, the Soviet Union and China.

Who will be the 4th country to land on the moon? #Israel or #India? @owenalterman tells @talexander_i24: #Beresheet2 pic.twitter.com/WYtJo039dq

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) 14 באפריל 2019

Launched from Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket two months ago, Beresheet – Hebrew for "Genesis" or "In the beginning" – would have been the first craft to land on the moon that was not the product of a government program.

The Adelson family owns the company that is the primary shareholder in Israel Hayom. Dr. Miriam Adelson is the publisher of Israel Hayom.

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