Sixty years after television audiences first joined the crew of the Starship Enterprise, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station celebrated the Star Trek 60th anniversary by displaying the badge of the franchise’s newest fictional captain.
European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Sophie Adenot wore the Captain Pike delta badge in a video recorded aboard the space station. The badge was previously worn by actor Anson Mount in a video filmed from orbit. Mount portrays Captain Christopher Pike in the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Paramount and the ESA shared the video on Instagram.
“For 60 years, Star Trek has brought us stories about friendship and exploration,” Adenot said. “I am wearing the Captain Pike badge on the ISS to commemorate our continued work in real-world science and exploration. For me, exploration and science are about curiosity and collaboration—going a little farther together, learning from what we discover, and turning that knowledge into a better future for everyone.”
“Happy 60th anniversary to Star Trek. Live long and prosper,” she added while performing the traditional Vulcan salute.
“Explore. Discover. Do it with us.”
The ESA said the Captain Pike badge was flown by Adenot as part of Europe’s Epsilon mission. The agency described the tribute as a celebration of the connection between Star Trek and real-world space exploration.
“It’s a small object, but it carries something much bigger: 60 years of stories that taught us to dream of exploring together,” the ESA wrote in a post accompanying the video. “For more than 50 years, that is exactly what we have been doing. We have sent people and robotic spacecraft beyond Earth, built space stations with partners from dozens of countries, and continued to ask the same questions Star Trek has been asking: What’s out there, and what can we learn from it?”
Source: arstechnica.com