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William Shatner pushes back over Prince William’s space tourism stance

William Shatner is now really a rocketman and his experience breaking the barrier to space has him in a battle of wills with Prince William.

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William Shatner boldly went where few had gone before on Wednesday when he climbed on board Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Shepard spacecraft as part of the latest space tourism mission.

But the next day, Prince William criticized people like Bezos and other members of the billionaires club for spending money taking the paying public to space, CNN reported.

He didn’t signal out Bezos, Elon Musk or Richard Branson by name, but still told the BBC that those people with money should invest not only cash but also time in protecting our home, Earth.

“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,” Prince William told the BBC.

He said that he has “absolutely no interest” in blasting off and actually has concerns about the potential impact space tourism could have on the environment.

But Shatner, who became the oldest person in space at the age of 90 during his flight, doesn’t agree with Prince William’s statements.

“He’s a lovely, gentle, educated man, but he’s got the wrong idea,” Shatner told Entertainment Tonight. “The idea here is not to go, ‘Yeah, look at me. I’m in space.’”

Instead, he said trips like his are a “baby step” that could relocate polluting industries to space.

Shatner said a power-generating plant could be built 250 miles above the Earth that could supply power to homes and businesses on the ground.

“All it needs is... somebody as rich as Jeff Bezos [to say], ‘Let’s go up there,’” Shatner said during the Entertainment Tonight interview.