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Culture

Beam Me Up

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
February 16, 2007

Editor’s note: Last May I spent some time in a windowless warehouse in an undisclosed location north of Los Angeles. While there I was interviewed for a TV special being produced in connection with the Star Trek prop auction held in New York last year. Two Star Trek related TV shows will air on the History Channel on 19 February. Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier and Star Trek Tech (airs on both 18 and 19 February). I am not sure if I will be in these shows since my footage was in and then out at one point while the shows were being edited.

Even if I don’t get included, it was sure fun to see this collection of cultural icons. Imagine a warehouse the size of a supermarket with aisle after aisle of Star Trek props. Captain Kirk’s rock climbing shoes, T’Pau’s gown, phasers, gold-pressed latinum, transporter pads, and lots of Borg parts. It was all there. Part of my interview took place while I sat in a Klingon commander’s chair (right image). They even beamed me in and out of it! (you actually do feel a little tingly for a moment).

While I sat there and talked about connections between NASA and Star Trek, I was fiddling with some of those colored floppy disks from Kirk’s Enterprise and some isolinear chips from Picard’s ship. Lots of fun.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.