he called space the final frontier and promised to explore strange new worlds to seek out new life and new civilizations to boldly go where no man has gone before beam me up shatners character would tell the enterprises chief engineer scotty played by james doohan in a memorable catchphrase when he needed to be transported to the starship 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 ive always been consumed with curiosity shatner said in a blue origin video shatners participation in the flight has helped generate publicity for blue origin as it competes against two billionairebacked rivals elon musks spacex and richard bransons virgin galactic holdings inc to attract customers willing to pay large sums to experience spaceflight branson inaugurated his space tourism service on july 11 riding along on a suborbital flight with six others aboard his companys vss unity rocket plane spacex which has launched numerous astronauts and cargo payloads to the international space station for nasa debuted its space tourism business by flying the first allcivilian crew to reach earths orbit in a threeday mission ending sept 18 the us federal aviation administration two weeks ago said it will review safety concerns raised by former and current blue origin employees who have accused the company of prioritizing speed and cost savings over quality control and adequate staffing