William Shatner responds to Prince William's comments about space travel

William Shatner thinks Prince William has space tourism all wrong.

On Thursday, the British royal criticised space travel as a means of ignoring the climate crisis, just one day after the Star Trek actor made history as the oldest person to travel to space.

"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," the Duke of Cambridge told the BBC. "I think that ultimately is what sold it for me - that really is quite crucial to be focusing on this (planet) rather than giving up and heading out into space to try and think of solutions for the future."

Shatner addressed the comments during an interview with Entertainment Tonight, saying that the royal has the wrong idea about the intentions behind recreational space flights.

"He's got the wrong idea here, it's not to go, 'Oh look at me, I'm in space,'" the 90-year-old said, explaining that space travel is an intermediary step to moving pollution-causing industries off of the planet. "You can build a base 250, 280 miles above the Earth and send that power down here."

The actor concluded by saying that he does believe that there needs to be more work done on the ground, and that the voyage reminded him of how people are capable of doing important things every day.

"Everybody in their lifetime needs to be reminded: You're important, you're beautiful, do something important today," he continued. "That's what that trip did to me - it reminded me of death facing me because of my age, but also how to protect you in the years to come."

Shatner was one of four people who took a 10-minute trip to space with Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' company, on Wednesday.