A dedication to variety honoring “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry will quickly blast off to the ultimate frontier.
Fans impressed by Gene Roddenberry, who launched “Star Trek” in 1966 with “The Original Series,” will see their artwork go to space early subsequent month on board SpaceX‘s Transporter 6 mission.
That flight will loft, amongst different payloads, a “flock” of tiny Earth-observing SuperDove satellites for San Francisco-based firm Planet atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Some of these cubesats “will be adorned with artwork and quotes that celebrate the legacy of hope and inclusiveness of ‘Star Trek’ and its creator, Gene Roddenberry,” representatives of Planet and the Roddenberry Foundation, which labored collectively on the undertaking, said in a statement (opens in new tab).
Related: NASA celebrates the life and career of ‘Star Trek’ star Nichelle Nichols
You can view a mosaic (opens in new tab) of the fan artwork on the “Boldly Go” marketing campaign web site (named after an iconic phrase from the franchise).
The marketing campaign was launched by the Roddenberry Foundation in 2021 to have fun the “Star Trek” creator’s centennial year. (He was born in 1921 and died in 1991). The marketing campaign sees humanity’s future as “one of inclusion, scientific progress and co-operation across our differences,” the statement reads (opens in new tab).
“Star Trek showed us a future where diverse peoples come together across differences to work for the common good,” Rod Roddenberry, son of Gene Roddenberry and co-founder of the Roddenberry Foundation, stated in the identical assertion.
Gene Roddenberry has been lauded for his efforts to spice up variety, together with casting a Black girl (Nichelle Nichols) in a starring function. He licensed the probably first interracial kiss on tv, between Nichols (enjoying Uhura) and William Shatner (as Capt. James T. Kirk.)
Starring forged members of “The Original Series” additionally included a Japanese-American who had survived internment throughout the Second World War (George Takei) and the Chicago-born son of Russian Jewish immigrants (Walter Koenig), who was forged on the peak of the Cold War space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
But Roddenberry’s practices weren’t excellent. Takei, a homosexual man who got here out in 2005, after society grew to become extra accepting, has stated that Roddenberry held again on portraying queer people on tv throughout a extremely restrictive period. Roddenberry had anxious about community retribution, however to his credit score, the “Star Trek” creator later stated he regretted not being an advocate for that group.
Related: Space has a diversity problem — and big institutions like universities can do something about it
The franchise stays dedicated to variety three a long time after Roddenberry’s dying. Taking “Star Trek Discovery” as only one current instance, it portrayed the first gay couple in a starring franchise function with Paul Stamets and Hugh Culber, performed by Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz, respectively. The present additionally forged its first non-binary and trans characters; the trans character (Gray) is performed by trans actor Ian Alexander, and the non-binary character (Adira) is portrayed by non-binary actor Blu del Barrio.
Trek variety has additionally spilled off-screen. The death of Nichols in August, at age 89, prompted many to recall the time she labored immediately with NASA within the Seventies to recruit individuals of colour and ladies into the astronaut corps. That marketing campaign introduced in astronaut luminaries similar to Sally Ride and Judith Resnick (the primary and second American girls in space), Guion Bluford and Ron McNair (the primary and second Black Americans in space) and Ellison Onizuka (the primary Asian American in space).
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a e book about space drugs. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
