William Shatner, who played Captain James T Kirk in Star Trek, has confirmed that he will go to space this month on the second launch staged by the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s space travel company, Blue Origin. Shatner, 90, will take off from West Texas on 12 October, making him the oldest person to travel to space. “I’ve heard about space for a long time now,” Shatner said in a statement on Monday. “I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle.” Blue Origin’s first flight in July carried Bezos, his brother Mark, 18-year-old Oliver Daemen and 82-year-old Wally Funk, then the youngest and oldest people to travel to space. Shatner will be accompanied by a former Nasa engineer who founded a nano-satellite company; the co-founder of a software company specializing in clinical research; and a Blue Origin employee. The October flight is again expected to last about 10 minutes, taking the crew just beyond the Karman Line, an internationally recognized boundary of space about 62 miles (100km) above the Earth. In the emerging and controversial space tourism market, Blue Origin and its New Shepard rocket is in competition with SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, and Virgin Galactic, owned by Richard Branson. In an interview with NBC News in July, Shatner dismissed criticisms of billionaires using their fortunes to go on “joyrides” in space, saying: “It’s their money. They can do what they want with it.” Nevertheless, he teased people who want to visit Mars, saying: “Whatshisname wants to colonize Mars? That’s ridiculous.” He was referring to Musk, who plans to establish a permanent human presence on the Red Planet. The announcement of Shatner’s flight on Monday came less than a week after a group of current and former Blue Origin employees released an open letter in which they accused the business of operating a work environment “rife with sexism” and preferring “breakneck speed” to safety. The letter also alleged that a senior figure in the company was reported numerous times for sexual harassment and that new female employees were warned to stay away from another executive who allegedly groped a colleague. Blue Origin said it had “no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind. We provide numerous avenues for employees … and will promptly investigate any new claims of misconduct”.