The flight, carrying four people including actor William Shatner, launched from Blue Origin's sub-orbital launch site in West Texas aboard the fourth flight of New Shepard booster NS4 and the spacecraft RSS First Step, both having previously flown on NS-14, NS-15, and NS-16 earlier in the year.

At 90, Shatner became the oldest person to fly into space, surpassing the record of 82 which had been held by Wally Funk for three months since her flight on Blue Origin NS-16.

[5] While in space, Shatner experienced the overview effect and articulated it live on camera in a post-flight conversation with Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.

[6] The crew of four include Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers, former NASA engineer and third Australian-born person in space Chris Boshuizen, vice chair for life sciences and healthcare at the French software company Dassault Systèmes Glen de Vries, and Canadian actor William Shatner.

Chris Boshuizen, who is also a musician, carried a Star Trek-themed USB drive which contained 400 songs submitted to him via a Reddit thread along with him on the trip.