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Why Tom Hanks turned down the chance to fly to space

Tom Hanks turned down space trip credit:Bang Showbiz
Tom Hanks turned down space trip credit:Bang Showbiz

Tom Hanks turned down the chance to fly to space because of the cost.

The 'Finch' actor admitted Jeff Bezos had asked him to board his Blue Origin flight before 'Star Trek' star William Shatner accepted the invitation but he didn't want to hand over a staggering $28 million to take part.

Asked on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' if it was true he'd been asked to be on the flight before William, Tom said: "Well, yeah, provided I pay.

"You know, it costs like 28 million bucks or something like that. I'm doing good, Jimmy, I'm doing good. But I ain't paying 28 [million] bucks."

The 65-year-old star joked he and Jimmy could "simulate" the experience in the studio instead.

Bouncing in his seat, he quipped: "It's about a 12 minute flight? Is that it? ... Okay, we could all do it in our seats right here.

"I don't need to spend 28 million bucks to do that."

And Tom joked he'd consider boarding the rocket if it was free.

He said: "I'd do it on occasion just in order to experience the joy of pretending I'm a billionaire."

William, 90, became the oldest person to travel to space when he and three other crew members took the New Shepard rocket on its NS-18 mission in October, three months after Amazon founder Jeff travelled in the same rocket for his Blue Origin company's first space flight with humans on board.

The autonomous spacecraft has enough space for six people and has been designed to "take astronauts and research payloads past the Kármán line — the internationally recognized boundary of space."

The veteran actor previously hailed his trip as "life-changing", but insisted that wasn't for the reasons people would expect.

He said: "It's life-changing in its way, not because of the aerial adventure, but because of the people I'm meeting."