Fans of the television science-fiction series Star Trek were saddened when the show’s
final episode aired on June 3, 1969. It seemed like the end of a very short
era, as the program had only been on the air for three seasons.
Star Trek creator
Gene Roddenberry first had the idea for a science-fiction television series in
1964, set in the 23rd century aboard a starship whose crew was dedicated to
exploring the galaxy. NBC introduced the show to its fall 1966 lineup, with the
first episode airing on Sept. 8. To put that date in perspective, NASA was
preparing to launch the Gemini 10 mission, and was still almost three years
from landing humans on the Moon, while Star
Trek’s Starship Enterprise was
making fictional journeys through the galaxy.
What made the show particularly attractive to late 1960s
television audiences was the makeup of Enterprise’s
crew. Among the major characters were an African-American woman communications officer,
an Asian-American helmsman and a half-human, half-Vulcan science officer,
eventually joined by a Russian-born ensign.
While the show enjoyed good ratings during its first two seasons, lower
ratings in the third season led to its eventual cancellation despite a
concerted letter-writing campaign from its dedicated fans.
After the show’s cancellation, Star Trek lived on and prospered in syndication, attracting an
ever-growing fan base. Often dubbed “Trekkies,” these fans held the first Star Trek convention in 1972 and became
a dedicated constituency. When, in 1976, NASA announced that it would name its
first space shuttle orbiter Constitution,
in honor of its rollout on Sept. 17, the anniversary of the ratification of the
U.S. Constitution, Trekkies engaged in a dedicated letter-writing campaign to
have the orbiter named Enterprise after
the starship in the show. This time, the fans’ campaign was successful. President
Gerald R. Ford sided with the Trekkies and directed NASA to rechristen the
first space shuttle. When it rolled out of its manufacturing plant in Palmdale,
California, it bore the name Enterprise.
On hand to see the event were many of the original cast members of the show, as
well as its creator Rodenberry, hosted by NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher.
Thus began a long relationship between the space agency and the Star Trek brand.
Left: The creator and
cast members of Star Trek attend the
rollout of Space Shuttle Enterprise
with NASA Administrator Fletcher (at left). Right: Nichelle Nichols in the shuttle
simulator at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in March 1977. Image Credits: NASA
When NASA was developing the Space Shuttle in the 1970s, it
needed to recruit a new group of astronauts to fly the vehicle, deploy the
satellites and perform the science experiments, and was encouraging women and
minorities to apply. The agency hired Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Nyota
Uhura as the communications officer on the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek,
to record a recruiting
video. She came to NASA’s Johnson
Space Center in March 1977 and, accompanied by Apollo 12 and Skylab 3 astronaut
Alan L. Bean, toured the center and filmed scenes for the video in mission control
and other high-profile facilities. NASA hoped that her stature and popularity
would encourage women and minorities to apply—and indeed, they did. In January 1978,
when NASA announced the selection of 35 new astronauts, among them—for the
first time—were women and minorities.
Nichols returned to Johnson in September 2010 with the Traveling
Space Museum, an organization that partners with schools to promote space
studies. She toured mission control and the International Space Station trainer,
accompanied by astronaut B. Alvin Drew. She also flew aboard NASA’s Stratospheric
Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne telescope aircraft in September
2015, possibly the closest any of the cast has come to flying in space.
Left: Nichols (middle)
with astronaut Drew in the station trainer. Right: Nichols (center) inside the
SOFIA aircraft. Image Credits: NASA
Meanwhile, the Star
Trek brand renewed itself in 1979 as a full-length motion picture, with the
original television series cast members reprising their roles. This first film
was followed over the years with a number of sequels.
On the small screen, a reboot of sorts occurred in 1987 with
the premiere of Star Trek: The Next
Generation, set in the 24th century aboard the Enterprise-D, a next-generation starship with a new crew. That series lasted seven seasons and was
followed by a near-bewildering array of spin-off series, all built on the Star Trek brand, which continue to this
day.
Left: James Doohan
visiting Dryden in 1967 with NASA pilot Bruce Peterson, in front of the M2-F2
lifting body aircraft. Right: Doohan in the commander’s seat of the space shuttle
simulator, assisted by astronaut Mario Runco. Image Credits: NASA
The actor who played Lieutenant Commander Montgomery “Scotty”
Scott, the Starship Enterprise’s
chief engineer, James Doohan, had early associations with NASA. In April 1967,
Doohan visited NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California, now
Armstrong Flight Research Center, where he spent time with NASA pilot Bruce A. Peterson.
Peterson was a test pilot for the experimental M2-F2 lifting-body aircraft who,
a month later, barely survived a horrific crash of the vehicle. Peterson became
the inspiration for the 1970s TV series The
Six-Million Dollar Man, and film of the crash was included in the show’s opening
credits. Doohan narrated a documentary
film about the space shuttle released shortly before Columbia made its first flight in April 1981. In January 1991, Doohan
visited Johnson. Accompanied by astronaut Mario Runco (who sometimes goes by
the nickname “Spock”), Doohan toured the shuttle trainers and mission control
and tried his hand at operating the shuttle robot arm in the Manipulator
Development Facility. In a unique tribute, astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, the
first person to step on the lunar surface, made a rare public appearance to
speak at Doohan’s
retirement in 2004, as “one old engineer to another.”
Left: Then Johnson
Center Director Michael Coats presents George Takei with a plaque. Right: Takei
and Robonaut both give the Vulcan greeting. Image Credits: NASA
George Takei, who played Starship Enterprise helmsman Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, and his husband Brad
visited Johnson in May 2012. Invited by both the ASIA and Out & Allied
Employee Resource Groups, Takei spoke of leadership and inclusiveness,
including overcoming challenges while in Japanese-American internment camps
during World War II and as a member of the LGBT community. He mentioned that Star Trek was ahead of its time in
creating a future where all members of society could equally participate in
great undertakings, at a time when the country was struggling through the Civil
Rights movement and the conflict in southeast Asia. He was greatly inspired by
the inclusiveness that is part of NASA’s culture. Then Johnson Center Director Michael
L. Coats presented Takei with a plaque that included an American flag flown
aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis during
STS-135. Takei also visited mission control and spent some time with Robonaut.
Left: Star Trek cast member Leonard Nimoy gives the Vulcan greeting
in front of Space Shuttle Enterprise
after its arrival in New York in 2012. Right: Expedition
43 crew member Samantha Cristaforetti gives the Vulcan salute in 2015 to honor
the late actor Nimoy. Image Credits: NASA
The science officer aboard the Starship Enterprise, the half-human, half-Vulcan Mr. Spock, was played by
Leonard Nimoy. The actor was on hand in September 2012 when Space Shuttle Enterprise arrived at John F. Kennedy
International Airport in New York, on the last leg of its journey to the
Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, where it is currently on display.
“This is a reunion for me,” Nimoy said. “Thirty-five years
ago, I met the Enterprise for the
first time.”
Following
his death in 2015, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristaforetti paid
tribute to Nimoy aboard the space station by wearing a Star Trek science
officer uniform, giving the Vulcan greeting and quoting Captain Kirk, “Of all the souls I have
encountered ... his was the most human.”
At the helm of the Starship Enterprise was Captain James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner. The
actor, a lifelong advocate of science and space exploration, began a relationship
with NASA during the original series, with references to the space agency
incorporated into several story lines. An episode that aired in February 1967 featured
a photograph of the Gemini 6 launch hanging on the wall. In 2011, Shatner
hosted and narrated a NASA
documentary celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Program,
and gave his time and voice to other NASA documentaries. Most recently, he
narrated the NASA video “We Are Going,” about our plans to
land the next man and the first woman on the Moon by 2024. NASA recognized
Shatner’s contributions in 2014 with a Distinguished
Public Service Medal, the highest award the agency bestows on
non-government individuals. The citation for the medal, presented to Shatner by NASA
Deputy Associate Administrator for Communications Bob Jacobs, read, “For
outstanding generosity and dedication to inspiring new generations of explorers
around the world, and for unwavering support for NASA and its missions of
discovery.”
Elements of the Star
Trek universe have made their way not only into popular culture, but also
into NASA culture. As noted above, Star
Trek fans were instrumental in naming the first Space Shuttle Enterprise. When NASA was designing an
Earth-observation facility for the space station to make use of its optical
quality window, its formal acronym became the Window Observational Research
Facility (WORF). The connection between that acronym and the name of a Klingon
officer aboard the Enterprise in the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series
was an opportunity not to be missed. On the facility’s official patch,
underneath the acronym WORF, is the name written in the fictional Klingon
language.
Several astronaut crews have embraced Star Trek themes for their unofficial photographs. The STS-54 crew
of Space Shuttle Endeavour dressed in
the uniforms of Starship Enterprise
officers from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” the second full-length feature
motion picture of the series. Space shuttle and station crews create Space
Flight Awareness (SFA) posters for their missions, and more than one has
embraced Star Trek motifs. The Expedition
21 crew dressed in uniforms from the original series, while the STS-134 crew of
the Space Shuttle Endeavour chose the
2009 reboot motion picture Star Trek as
their motif.
In the documentary “NASA on the Edge of
Forever: Science in Space,” host NASA astronaut Victor Glover
states, “Science and Star Trek go
hand in hand.”
The film explores how, for the past 50 years, Star Trek has influenced scientists,
engineers and even astronauts to reach beyond their potential. While station
doesn’t speed through the galaxy like the Starship Enterprise, much of the research conducted aboard the orbiting
facility can make the fiction of Star
Trek come a little closer to reality. Several of the cast members from the
original TV series added their viewpoints in the documentary, along with those
of NASA managers and scientists. The mutual attraction between NASA and
Star Trek is that both, to paraphrase
the opening voiceover from the TV series, seek to explore and seek out new worlds, and to boldly go where no one has gone
before.
May everyone involved in these endeavors live long and prosper.