Why Tom Hanks rejected Jeff Bezos' offer to go to space

Tom Hanks, the Hollywood star best known for films like "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Apollo 13," recently said in an interview that billionaire Jeff Bezos offered to fly him to space before William Shatner, but joked that he was expected to pay.

Hanks appeared on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' where he was asked about rumours that Bezos offered to fly him to space on his Blue Origin space flight. There, the Hollywood A-lister confirmed the rumour, Fox News reported.

"Well yeah, provided I pay," he said. "It costs like $28 million or something like that. And I'm doing good, Jimmy — I'm doing good — but I ain't paying $28 million. You know what, we could simulate the experience of going to space right now."

Hanks, who appeared to promote his new movie "Finch," mimicked shaking in a rocket while in his chair, saying, "I don't need to spend 28 million bucks to do that."

According to a report last month that the company has not publicly stated a price for a ticket, so it is possible that Hanks was referring to the auction price for one of the seats.

Hanks, who famously played astronaut Jim Lovell in Ron Howard's 1995 'Apollo 13', proceeded to jokingly "simulate" what the 12-minute experience would be like, and let's just say Blue Origin would disagree.

Last month, Shatner and three fellow passengers hurtled to an altitude of 66.5 miles over the West Texas desert in the fully automated capsule, then safely parachuted back to Earth. The flight lasted just over 10 minutes. He called it the "most profound experience," explaining "I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don't want to lose it."

According to Fox News, another media outlet had reported that Shatner, along with Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations, did not pay for their flight trip. The firm described them as guests for the trip.

With agency inputs