National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA insignia

NASA "worm" logo

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was the designation for an early Human space exploration agency created by the Earth nation United States of America in 1958. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)

NASA oversaw the launch of a vast majority of the major US spaceflight milestones of the 20th and 21st centuries.

History

• 1958 – NASA was founded
• 1959 – The Ranger program started (TOS: "The Cage")
• 1960 – The probe Pioneer 5 was launched (TOS: "The Cage")
• 1961 – Alan Shepard was the first American astronaut in space (PIC: "Two of One")

Diagram of Ranger 5

• 1962 – John Glenn was the first American to complete an orbit of the Earth (VOY: "One Small Step")
• 1962 – The probe Mariner 2 was launched (TOS: "The Cage")
• 1962 – The probe Ranger 5 was launched (TOS: "The Cage")
• 1968 – An orbital nuclear warhead platform was launched from McKinley Rocket Base; the warhead apparently arms itself, but explodes 104 miles from Earth's surface (TOS: "Assignment: Earth")
• 1969 – The Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the Moon, recording Humanity's first steps on another celestial body; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first Humans to step on the Moon (ENT: "Carbon Creek", "First Flight"; TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday"; VOY: "Threshold", "One Small Step", "Nightingale")
• 1970s – Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 take images of the Jovian moon Europa. (PIC: "Watcher")
• 1971 – Alan Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission (Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits)
• 1972 – The probe Pioneer 10 was launched (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
• 1973 – The first American space station Skylab was launched into Earth orbit; (Star Trek: First Contact; ENT: "First Flight") Pioneer 11 was launched (TNG: "Loud As A Whisper")

Space shuttle orbiter

• 1976 – The space shuttle orbiter program started by conducting the first tests with the prototype, Enterprise OV-101 (Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits; Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
• 1979 – Pioneer 11 became the first Human spacecraft to visit Saturn; this success was the culmination of 22 years of work to visit and survey those planets that had been seen by Humans prior to the invention of the telescope (TNG: "Loud As A Whisper" okudagram)
• 1986 – The space shuttle orbiter Challenger OV-099 exploded 78 seconds after liftoff, killing seven astronauts (dedication from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
• 1990s: NASA began participation in the International Space Station project (Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits)
• 1990s: Galileo takes images of the Jovian moon Europa. (PIC: "Watcher")
• 1996 – Scientists from NASA found the first microscopic evidence of past life on Mars (VOY: "Future's End")
• 1997 – Sojourner, the first rover vehicle launched by NASA, landed on Mars (ENT: "Terra Prime")

The ISS

• 1999 – The probe Voyager 6 was launched (Star Trek: The Motion Picture; Star Trek Chronology)
• 2002 – The probe Nomad MK-15c, constructed by Jackson Roykirk, was launched (TOS: "The Changeling")
• Early 21st century – The space shuttle orbiter OV-165 was launched (Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits)
• Early 21st century – The Earth-Saturn probe expedition was conducted by Colonel Shaun Geoffrey Christopher and includes Fontana and O'Herlihy (ENT: "First Flight"; TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday")
• Early 21st century – NASA collaborated with other space agencies in the International Space Agency, in particular during the Ares IV mission to Mars in 2032 (conducted by John Kelly, Rose Kumagawa, and Andrei Novakovich) (VOY: "One Small Step")

NASA Logotype, ca. 2037 on Charybdis debris

• 2037 – The spaceship Charybdis was launched as the third attempt to explore beyond the Sol system; the crew includes Colonel Stephen G. Richey, Evans, Schmitt, and Cernan (TNG: "The Royale")
• 2038 – NASA lost contact with the Charybdis following a failure in the ship's telemetry system; it was later learned that the Charybdis was contaminated by an alien lifeform which infected and killed all personnel except mission commander Stephen G. Richey (TNG: "The Royale")

A display graphic not seen on screen in the episode but featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission (p. 81) shows that the spaceship Jacob was subsequently launched to conduct a follow up mission on locating the Charybdis.

• Unknown – Cassini

In reality, Cassini–Huygens was launched in 1997, started orbiting Saturn in 2004, and the mission ended in 2017. However, the mission was represented in a distinct retro manner, using a more classic look for the mission patch and pre-digital technology effects, raising questions about these dates being the same within the Star Trek universe.

Many of the dates in this list are derived from real-world information.

The similarity of the Starfleet logo/crest to that of NASA design (not to mention the similarity of the mottoes) suggests that the NASA component might have had an influential role.

Personnel

Astronauts

Alan Shepard in 1971

• Aldrin, Buzz
• Armstrong, Neil
• Cernan
• Conrad, Pete
• Evans
• Glenn, John
• Grissom, Gus
• Jemison, Mae
• McMillan
• Richey, Stephen G.
• Shepard, Alan
• Schmitt

A few starships were named for NASA astronauts: USS Shepard (Alan Shepard), four USS Grissoms (Gus Grissom), and the three USS Armstrongs (Neil Armstrong).

As well, a number of shuttles were named for NASA astronauts: Armstrong, Conrad, McAuliffe, and Onizuka.

Others

• Moss, Gerald (media relations department)
• O'Donnell, Shannon (aerospace engineer)
• Roykirk, Jackson (scientist)
• O'Donnell's NASA class (status unknown)

Vehicles and rockets

• Mercury capsule
• Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle

Background information

During the 1970s, Nichelle Nichols worked for NASA, helping recruit women and ethnic minority astronauts, including the first female American astronaut Sally Ride and 2010s NASA administrator Charles Bolden. [1]

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration received "grateful acknowledgment" in the closing credits of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, as well as the closing credits of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

To achieve a more realistic and gritty look for Deep Space 9, the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine production team looked at NASA photographs of the space shuttle orbiters and other space vehicles. (Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before)

For the rendering of Earth seen in DS9: "Past Tense, Part I" and "Past Tense, Part II", David Takemura used an eight-by-ten NASA transparency of the planet to create the footage. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 202)

Three "real" NASA astronauts have appeared in Trek productions – Mae Jemison (the first African-American woman in space) played Lt. Palmer in TNG: "Second Chances", while E. Michael Fincke and Terry Virts (though Virts was uncredited) appeared together as Lt. M. Fincke and Ens. T. Virts, respectively, in the the Star Trek: Enterprise fourth season episode "These Are the Voyages...".

NASA is featured heavily in the opening credits for Star Trek: Enterprise, including a diagram of the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, the space shuttle orbiter Enterprise, the Apollo program, a Saturn V rocket, and the Mars Pathfinder rover Sojourner.

External links

• NASA.gov – official website
• NASA at Wikipedia
• NASA References in Star Trek at Ex Astris Scientia