William Shatner jokes with crowd at New York Comic Con about space flight: 'I'm Captain Kirk and I'm terrified'

In advance of his becoming the oldest person to travel to space, William Shatner says past disasters sometimes give him pause.

Much of his 45-minute speech included talk of the 90-year old actor's other projects, including his album, but near the end he explained how he got interested in blasting off.

Jason Ehrlich, a friend and the producer of Shatner's show "Better Late than Never," came to him about a year and a half ago and encouraged him to consider going into space.

"'You know, they are starting to send these rockets up with people into space. Wouldn't it be something if Captain Kirk went up there,'" Ehrlich said to Shatner.

"Jason, for God sakes, nobody cares about -- hum going up in - it was 55 years ago -- my God man -- um, hum, uh -- well maybe I should go up into space," Shatner recalled, detailing how he came around to wanting to go.