#STR TREK MOVEIE SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE SERIES#

#STR TREK MOVEIE SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE SERIES#

In the original series episode “Return to Tomorrow,” Captain Kirk tells senior Enterprise officers, “Risk is our business! That’s what this starship is all about. Sharp-eyed viewers will spot it in “The Ensigns of Command,” “Evolution,” “The Mind’s Eye,” and “The Outcast,” per the Memory Alpha wiki. Star Trek: The Next Generation-which debuted 20 months after the Challenger accident-paid tribute to Onizuka by naming a shuttlepod after him. In 2011, Nichols spoke about how she reacted to the loss of Challenger, and of Resnik and McNair in particular: But its clear the tragedy struck especially hard because of her personal connection to two of its crew. Woman in Motion includes footage of Nichols weeping for all the Challenger Seven, not just those she recruited. Resnik and McNair were two of Nichols’ recruits for NASA. Sadly, three members of that astronaut class died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded: Ronald McNair, the second African American to fly in space Ellison Onizuka, the first Asian American to fly in space, and Judith Resnik, the second American woman in space. As the documentary film Woman in Motion makes clear, Nichols’ efforts were no small part of why NASA’s 1978 astronaut class included six women and three Black men. Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, worked tirelessly to recruit more minority and women candidates for NASA’s astronaut corps. While NASA’s Enterprise never actually entered the final frontier, the approach and landing tests it carried out were key to the program’s future. In 1976, President Gerald Ford-motivated in part by thousands of letters from Star Trek fans-encouraged the space agency to name its first space shuttle orbiter Enterprise.

Star Trek’s connection to NASA’s space shuttle program predated Challenger. The space shuttle Challenger crew and others took risks for discovery In addition to Christa McAuliffe, those men and women were: The cast and crew of Star Trek wish to dedicate this film to the men and women of the spaceship Challenger whose courageous spirit shall live to the 23rd century and beyond… And because the franchise, by 1986, had a 20-year track record itself of inspiring interest in science and space, the film’s dedication seems an altogether fitting tribute: Star Trek IV opened in theaters on November 26, almost 10 months after the Challenger explosion. Had Challenger reached orbit, McAuliffe would have taught two live lessons from the shuttle and filmed several more, all to inspire young people’s interest in science and space. The mission had drawn more public interest and media attention than usual (even though the shuttle program was not quite five years old) because NASA had selected high school teacher Christa McAuliffe to join the crew for the agency’s “Teacher in Space” program.

The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on January 28, 1986. An opening title card dedicates it “to the men and women of the spaceship Challenger…” What’s the funniest Star Trek movie? Without question, it’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). All rights reserved.Star Trek is linked to the space shuttle Challenger disaster. The latest incarnation of Trek lore, 'Star Trek: Into Darkness,' opens in theaters nationwide today (May 16).įollow on Facebook and on Twitter at collectSPACE. Michael Ciancone, American Astronautical Society History Committee chair, and Colin Fries, an archivist for NASA's History Office, contributed to the research for this article. 'Even if the show did not coin the term 'shuttlecraft,' I would not be surprised if its use on 'Star Trek' was responsible for bringing it into the lexicon.' 'I wouldn't be surprised if 'Star Trek' independently coined the specific term 'shuttlecraft,' but I've not seen anything to document this either way,' he said. 'As far as I can tell, it is not at all clear if 'Star Trek' borrowed the term from previous literature or if it was an independent invention.'

'From things that I've seen, it appears clear that the term 'shuttle' appeared in space literature prior to 'Star Trek,'' Michael Okuda, a graphic designer and technical advisor for the later 'Star Trek' series, told collectSPACE in an e-mail. In 'Star Trek,' small shuttlecraft, such as the Galileo, flew directly into the Starship Enterprise's hangar deck. public on the idea of manned spaceflight, rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun described, 'On approaching the space station, the tiny shuttle-craft will drive directly into an air lock.' In the Maissue of Collier's magazine, as part of a seminal series of articles focused on selling the U.S. It is possible that instead of 'Star Trek' paving the way for NASA's use of 'space shuttle,' it was NASA, or at least one of its early leaders, who originated the term for the show's shuttlecraft - 14 years before Captain James Kirk and his crew embarked on their first away mission.

Str trek moveie space shuttle enterprise