The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum was a museum on Earth where historic air and space vehicles were on display.
After its successful test flight in 2063, the experimental warp flight prototype Phoenix was put on permanent display in this museum. (PIC: "The Star Gazer" commemorative plaque)
As a boy, Jean-Luc Picard had seen the warp ship at the Smithsonian "hundreds of times", but had never been allowed to touch it before. (Star Trek: First Contact)
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Background information[]
In an early draft of the script for TNG: "Booby Trap", the Astral V Annex was stated to be a branch of the Smithsonian. (Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 1, p. 49)
Already recognizing the cultural significance of Gene Roddenberry's creation in 1967, the real-world Institution in a rare move – considering the highly contemporary nature of a television series of such recent date – invited him that year to submit the original pilots of Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (the rare, original production variant, never seen again, aside from bootleg convention showings, after its submission to NBC at the tail-end of 1965, until the 2009 TOS Season 3 Blu-ray release), and assorted production material, such as still photography, scripts and story outlines, for save-keeping for posterity. This the consummate (self)promoter Roddenberry did in a formal presentation at the Institution, pursuant the end of the Original Series' first season, with the print materials showing up at the Star Trek Smithsonian Exhibit twenty-five years later. ("Smithsonian Seeks TV Pilot", Los Angeles Times, 13 June 1967, p. C19)
The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum (NASM) houses the original shooting model of the USS Enterprise from TV's original Star Trek series on the first floor of the National Mall building. The model was gifted to the museum by Paramount Television in 1974, alongside the the studio models of the D7-class and the Aurora. The models were placed in the Smithsonian as part of the Star Trek Smithsonian Exhibit which opened in 1992.
The Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center also previously held the space shuttle Enterprise, named for the Star Trek ship, and which also appears in the opening credits of Star Trek: Enterprise. In 2012, the Enterprise was transferred to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. The museum now has in its possession the space shuttle Discovery which is on active display. From 2014 through 2016, the Udvar-Hazy Center served as the temporary repository for the original Enterprise studio model, and it was there that it underwent its fourth restoration, the result of which unveiled in its new permanent home at NASM in celebration of the franchise's 50th anniversary in 2016, as planned. [1]
Star Trek-affiliated museum staff[]
- F.C. Durant III – Assistant Director of Astronautics of the Smithsonian Institution, under whose auspices the original 11-foot Enterprise, the small lucite-encased Enterprise, D7-class, and the Aurora studio models were received in 1974, and under whose responsibility the first restoration of 11-foot model was performed.
- H. Bruce Franklin – Advisory Curator, responsible for initiating the 1992-1993 Star Trek Smithsonian Exhibit.
- Ed Miarecki – subcontractor for the third restoration of the 11-foot model, as well as being the first-time restorer of the other models and builder of an additional Tholian ship model, all of them featured as such in the Star Trek Smithsonian Exhibit.
- Margaret A. Weitekamp – Curator and Department Chair Space History Department, among others responsible for the museum's Star Trek holdings and overall project manager for the 2014-2016 fourth restoration of the original 11-foot Enterprise studio model.
External links[]
- SI.edu – official website
- Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Wikipedia
- Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works