Star Trek actor William Shatner has become the oldest person to travel to space.

The 90-year-old blasted off from Texas on a Blue Origin rocket with three other passengers this afternoon.

The trip lasted about 10 minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 107km before returning to Earth.

Special delivery: #NS18 astronauts put pen to postcard ahead of their flight. When they take to the skies, they’ll boldly go where no mail carrier has gone before. #postcardstospace 🚀 pic.twitter.com/FjG4TR42we

— Club for the Future (@clubforfuture) October 12, 2021

While there is no definitive altitude at which space begins, the Kármán line, at an altitude of 100km above sea level, is conventionally used as the starting point of outer space.

The International Space Station orbits the Earth at an altitude of between 330km and 410km above sea level.

The capsule parachuted back to earth at a "comfortable 26kph" this afternoon before landing in the West Texas desert at 4pm Irish time.

The crew was able to experience a short period of weightlessness as the capsule climbed to it’s highest point and were also able to look back on Earth through the capsules 3.5ft X 2.3ft windows.

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now & then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.🚀 pic.twitter.com/ZY2Ka8ij7z

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) October 13, 2021

While travelling to space, Shatner’s twitter account published a pre-programmed tweet with a famous quote from physicist Isaac Newton.

It reads: “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now & then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”