Star Trek and Real-Life Space Exploration
While NASA’s influence on Star Trek is clear, Star Trek’s enlightened storytelling with characters of varied races and nationalities likewise inspired — and continues to inspire— NASA engineers, astronauts, and other aerospace experts. Many people in the aerospace industry loved Star Trek as much as Star Trek respected and admired actual space travel professionals.
As the creator of Star Trek Gene Roddenberry said, “The real space program provides the science, we supply the dreams that keep people interested.”
Astronomer Carl Sagan made the same observation from the scientists perspective: “Science and science fiction have done a kind of dance over the last century… . The scientists make a finding, it inspires science fiction writers to write about it, and a host of young people read the science fiction and are excited and inspired to become scientists to find out more…, which they do, which then feeds again into another generation of science fiction and science.”
In June 2020, NASA specifically said in a press release that “via the Artemis Accords (dealing with lunar exploration), we hope that the future will look a lot more like ‘Star Trek, and a lot less like ‘Star Wars’.”
In 2022, NASA administrator Mike Gold confirmed: “”Star Trek has always been an inspiration for many of us in the space field.”
For almost 60 years now, the science fiction franchise Star Trek has influenced scientists, engineers, astronomers, and astronauts as a very real inspiration for their desire to be involved in astronomy and space exploration.
Warp drive theory has quickly evolved since the mid-90s, when, inspired by Star Trek, Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre developed a concept described in a landmark paper that provided a scientific basis for hyper-fast travel within general relativity.
Aerospace engineer and applied physicist Harold “Sonny” White has been chipping away at the problem Alcubierre first posed. Known for his work as the first and only scientist to investigate Warp drives for NASA, White is also well known for refining Alcubierre’s work by reducing the energy requirements to create the still theoretical yet seemingly more attainable Alcubierre-White Warp Metric.
Star Trek's Enterprise May Actually Be Sound Engineering for a Warp Drive
In 2025, Harold White – a mechanical engineer and applied physicist who worked on warp drive concepts at NASA’s Advanced Propulsion Physics Laboratory – published a peer-reviewed paper in the prestigious Classical and Quantum Gravity journal (8 Dec 2025) that proposes a new design for a warp drive that happens to look a lot like the Enterprise. White elaborated: “The resemblance to the twin nacelles of [Star Trek’s] USS Enterprise is not merely aesthetic, but reflects a potential convergence between physical requirements and engineering design, where science-fiction architectures hint at practical pathways for real warp-capable configurations.”
In other words: When White and his research colleagues came up with a design that could bend spacetime but also keep a crew safe inside the ship, the optimal geometry that emerged was twin engine pods arranged around a central habitable zone.
That’s the Enterprise.
See “A Faster-Than-Light Spaceship Could Actually Look a Lot Like Star Trek’s Enterprise,” FastCompany, (December 17, 2025).
These Starfleet Officers Want You to support space exploration by joining the Planetary Society!
As shown in the video at right, Brent Spiner (Data), Jonathan Frakes (Lt. Riker), Robert Picardo (the Doctor), and William Shatner (Captain Kirk) are all enthusiastic supporters of the real-world space exploration advanced by the Planetary Society, the organization Carl Sagan founded to demonstrate public support for NASA science programs.
In fact, the creator of Gene Roddenberry himself was an active supporter of the Planetary Society, and later his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry narrated a Planetary Society video in which these contrasting sf futures were compared).
Celebrating Gene Roddenberry: Star Trek’s Bridge and NASA
This 2021 video below, introduced by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, with remarks by Rod Roddenberry and George Takei, celebrates Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s 100th birthday with some of NASA’s best and brightest. NASA panelists include: Hortense Diggs, Director of the Office of Communication and Public Engagement at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Tracy Drain, Europa Clipper Flight Systems Engineer, astronaut Jonny Kim, and Swati Mohan, Mars 2020 Guidance and Controls Operations Lead. (43 Min., YouTube)
Star Trek Inspires a Better Future
Nichelle Nichols as Star Trek's "Lt. Uhura" and as NASA Ambassador and Recruiter
In 1984, Nichelle Nichols received the Distinguished Public Service Medal from NASA.
In 2022, when Nichelle Nichols died at the age of 89, then NASA Adminstrator Bill Nelson remembered Nichols in a statement:
“Nichelle Nichols was a trailblazing actress, advocate and dear friend to NASA. At a time when Black women were seldom seen on screen, Nichelle’s portrayal as Nyota Uhura on Star Trek held a mirror up to America that strengthened civil rights. Nichelle’s advocacy transcended television and transformed NASA. After Apollo 11, Nichelle made it her mission to inspire women and people of color to join this agency, change the face of STEM and explore the cosmos. Nichelle’s mission is NASA’s mission. Today, as we work to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon under Artemis, NASA is guided by the legacy of Nichelle Nichols.”
Nichols and NASA crossed paths many times over the years. Not only did she film a promotional video, but traveled the country giving talks to students and encouraging a more diverse group of people to apply.
Her legacy continues today, with the 2026 establishment of the “Nichelle Nichols Space Camp” to inspire young women to aim for the stars, sponsored by the Nichelle Nichols Foundation. The three-day program, within a Star Trek lens, will honor Nichols’s legacy by focusing on modern-day concepts to facilitate astronaut training procedures, strategies, and techniques. The program will include astronaut training in zero-gravy drills, spacesuit testing, and topics like Mars colonization and Star Trek-inspired first contact mission training and a Vulcan philosophy class on IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) and how that philosophy applies to the universe. There has been a dedicated commitment from the program coordinators of Nichols’s Space Camp to infuse the experience with Star Trek references, as well as being solidly focused on science and helping students to work together in teams, develop leadership skills, and most importantly – encourage critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are crucial for successful space exploration. It will be located at NASA’s Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the site for the traditional Space Camp program since 1982.
Many astronauts, engineers, and other space explorers have credited Nichols and the character of Lt. Uhura as an inspiration to them for seeking out opportunities with NASA and other space efforts, including: Ronald McNair, Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, and the first African American woman in space – Mae Jemison.
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Real Astronaut and Fictional Starfleet Officer Dr. Mae Jemison
Several prominent astronauts, including Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African American woman astronaut, directly credited Star Trek star Nichelle Nichols – later serving as a recruiter for NASA, with getting them to consider becoming an astronaut.
Dr. Jemison became the first black woman in space when she flew aboard the shuttle Endeavour in 1992. She later portrayed Starfleet officer Lt. Palmer, in the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “Second Chances” in 1993. She is the first real astronaut to have portrayed a Star Trek character.
Dr. Jemison is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has been inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame, the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and the National Medical Association Hall of Fame, and continues to work to advance space exploration. Jemison leads 100 Year Starship®, a global initiative to ensure the capabilities of interstellar travel by 2112 while applying scientific lessons to life on Earth.
When Star Trek series premiered on network television, she was only nine years old, but already knew that she would someday travel in space. Star Trek helped to confirm that her wild imagination could actually become possible! In an AP interview before her flight on the Space Shuttle, Jemison said she watched Nichols on “Star Trek” all the time, adding she loved the show. Her favorite characters were Mr. Spock and Lt. Uhura. Jemison eventually got to meet Nichelle Nichols on the studio set, after she had become an astronaut. In 1996, Dr. Mae celebrated Nichols and the rest of the Star Trek cast in a joint presentation with Moon landing astronaut Buzz Aldrin on behalf of NASA, at the 30th Anniversary of Star Trek event. (video clip). While aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, she began her shifts in orbit with Lt. Uhura’s trademark calls: “All hailing frequencies are open.”
Dr. Jemison is but one example of dozens of authentic space professionals who acknowledge their debt to Star Trek for inspiration.
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Books on Star Trek and Real-World Space Science
Star Trek: Open A channel: A Woman’s Trek is a recent book by Nana Visitor (who portrayed Kira Nerys in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Open a Channel: A Woman’s Trek, 2024) shows that even today Star Trek is an inspiration especially for many women in aerospace and science careers – and even those in other professions like medicine and clergy.
Inspired Enterprise: How NASA, the Smithsonian, and the Aerospace Community Helped Launch Star Trek by Glen E. Swanson. This new book by a space historian (Inspired Enterprise, 2025) reveals how NASA, the Smithsonian, and the aerospace community helped craft, legitimize, and popularize the beloved television show Star Trek.
William Shatner is inviting fans to join him for an upcoming book, William Shatner… And You.
The upcoming book is a heartfelt exploration of the unique bond he shares with generations of Star Trek fans around the world.
Described by Shatner as a “love affair with the fans,” the book will turn the spotlight on the fans themselves – sharing their voices, their memories, and how Shatner’s life has had an impact on their own.
As part of the project, Shatner is inviting fans to submit their own stories about the ways his work and the characters he has brought to life have influenced their lives. Selected fans will be interviewed personally by Shatner for inclusion in the book, alongside conversations with celebrities and public figures who have also been shaped by his work and legacy.
“Fans have given me the gift of a lifetime,” Shatner said. “This book is my chance to return that gift by telling their stories, and ours, together.”
William Shatner… And You will be released in late 2026 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Star Trek hitting the airwaves.
For more information and updates, visit WilliamShatnerAndYou.com
Star Trek Postage Stamps and Covers
Star Trek has inspired hundreds of postage stamps issued by countries all around the world, as well as collectible souvenir stamps.
For a visually exciting listing of most of them, see:
- Star Trek Stamps – an online exhibit of hundreds of Star Trek postage stamps and collectible souvenir stamps (called “Cinderellas”) from countries all over the world. As many stamp collectors realize, many of the best and most colorful postage stamps come from nations outside the U.S. This website forthrightly connects the themes of Star Trek with planetary patriotism, as the site admin, Rocky, writes on the site’s blog: “Star Trek has always captivated audiences with its optimistic vision of a future where humanity transcends its divisions and embraces a shared sense of purpose… This is the aspiration that Star Trek has ignited in my mind for Earth’s future…We all inhabit the same planet and share responsibility for its well-being… I increasingly identify as a citizen of Earth first and foremost… My hope is that future generations will primarily see themselves as citizens of Earth, working collaboratively to build a better future…” [Beyond Nations: A Star Trek Vision for a United Earth (posted May 4, 2025)
1991 Stamps
In 1991, during the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek, the U.S. Postal Service issued a special set of 10 “Space Exploration” commemorative postage stamps depicting real-world NASA missions to the Moon and all the planets, accompanied by a set of stickers (not usable as real postage) featuring 7 characters from The Original Series of Star Trek, along with the starship Enterprise. The postage stamps were marketed with posters and cardboard cut-outs featuring Mr. Spock.
1999 U.S. Postage Stamp
Only a few years later, the United States issued a 33 cent Star Trek stamp in 1999 as part of its “Celebrate the Century” series depicting the starship “Enterprise,” Scott number 3188e. This happened only after a 14 year campaign for a postage stamp honoring both the Star Trek Enterprise together with the real Space Shuttle test vehicle, Enterprise, named for the fictional one. [See the book: Maybe We Need a Letter from God: The Star Trek Stamp by Bill Kraft (2013). The book tells the story of this 14 year campaign, containing a collection of many dozens of letters from authors, educators, and many others (including Gene Roddenberry’s widow, actress and voice of the Enterprise “computer” for most of its run, Majel Barrett) supporting a special Star Trek stamp to be issued by the U.S Postal Service.]
In the end, the final stamp depicted only Star Trek’s Enterprise, along with the Starfleet badge artistically replacing the Sun.
2016 U.S. Postage Stamps
For the 50th anniversary of the franchise in 2016, the U.S. Postal Service issued 4 new Forever stamps in several configurations, a block of 4, a vertical strip of 4, or a whole page of 20 stamp, as follows:
Scott™ Catalogue Number:
5132 Starship Enterprise and Starfleet insignia – Yellow background
5133 Crewman in transporter – Red background
5134 Starship Enterprise and planet – Green background
5135 Starship Enterprise, planet and Vulcan hand salute – Blue background
In a related area of stamp collecting, there are many interesting “First Day Covers” ” featuring these stamps or containing Star Trek – themed cachets using these, labeled and postmarked on the official First Day of Issue. In addition many cachet makers have created Star Trek-themed “Event Covers,” using these and sometimes unrelated postage stamps, and with dates relating in some way to Star Trek, its anniversaries, or its cast members.
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Paramount Announces ‘Star Trek’ 60th Anniversary Celebration
To celebrate “Star Trek” Day Sept. 8, Paramount has announced a line-up of events leading up to the franchise’s 60th anniversary in 2026. The original “Star Trek” series premiered on U.S. televisions on Sept. 8, 1966.
Learn more here.
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