Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has one less volunteer for its star trek.

For five years, Captain Kirk commanded a mission on the Starship Enterprise to explore space, the final frontier. He flew the aircraft, the Shuttle craft, uniform-sized craft and on his time off, he scaled mountains, in the Star Trek movie series, anyway.

But Captain Kirk avoids the inner atmosphere.

Richard Branson told The Sun newspaper that William Shatner, starred as the original James T. Kirk on the Star Trek TV and movie series, turned down an invitation to fly on Virgin Galactic because he's scared of flying.

The Daily Mail quoted Richard Branson speaking of William Shatner "He actually said he's frightened of airline travel, which is slightly disillusioning. Captain Kirk is scared of flying."

William Shatner afraid to fly? He’s been flying all his life. He’s hosted stunt shows and raced cars and jumped train cars.

Maybe William Shatner has reason to be afraid. William Shatner has seen gremlins up close and personal. William Shatner starred in the classic Twilight Zone episode “Terror at 20,000 Feet.” He knows what’s up there.

Maybe Shatner knows what he’s worth. Richard Branson would reap the publicity and Shatner would pay to risk his life. William Shatner is in his eighties now.

William Shatner told the Mail: "He wanted me to go up and pay for it and I said: 'Hey, you pay me and I'll go up. I'll risk my life for a large sum of money.' But he didn't pick me up on my offer."

Richard Branson said ''We have a policy that, however famous people are, they won't get upgrades or freebies.''

Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Justin Bieber, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Brand all paid $200,000 to be shot into space.

Oh and Branson named his Virgin Galactic spaceship the VSS Enterprise.

The Enterprise will fly in the planet’s orbit for two hours at an altitude of about 62 miles, the boundary of outer space, experience weightlessness and get a great view of the Earth.

At 82, William Shatner’s seen it all anyway.