star trek sounds ringtones

• Skip to content
• Search Find a sound
• Funny Funny sounds
• Topics Topics
• Anime, Comics & Cartoons
• Celebrities
• Memes & Funny
• Music & Musicians
• Streamers, Twitch & Podcasts
• United Kingdom
• United States
• AI Voices Text to Speech voices
• Favorites Make your own Favorites board
• Apps Mobile Apps
• Song Makers Song Makers
• TikTok Voice The Famous TikTok Voice
• Donate Support the site
• Discord Bot Audio bot for Discord
• Live Sounds playing now
• Popular Most Popular boards
• Viral Viral boards

Log in or create an account to save your favorites, or they'll expire in 12 hours

{{ selectedSound.sound_transcript }}

Download sound.

Watch an Ad, Get 10 Free Download Credits...

To earn download credits, please watch the entire ad. Skipping will not earn download credits :

We rely on ads to pay for our servers and provide your 10 free downloads.

• A good day to die
• Auto destruct
• Beeping and clicking
• Blah blah blah No!
• Can't Answer
• Captain Kirk
• Captain's Hail (Boatswain Whistle) - Powerslave
• Classic Intercom Whistle
• Classic Theme music
• Communicator
• Communicator Sound Effect Ringtone
• Computer On
• Computer standing by
• Console beeps 5
• Data's life forms song
• Enterprise theme shortened
• He's dead Jim
• I Am Locutus of Borg
• I'm A Doctor - Medley
• I'm doing the best I can!
• Incoming message
• Live Long and Prosper
• Message received
• Message sent
• Not a Merry Man
• Orion slave girl dance music
• Packing a wallop, Shields Weakening - Powerslave
• Priority 1 Broadband Distress Signal - Powerslave
• Priority 1 Message Ringtone
• Priority 1 Msg From KlnSecOfficer - Powerslave
• Priority One Message from Starfleet Coming In On Secured Channel
• Resistance is futile
• Resistance is Futile - Locutus
• Saving the future
• Sense of Enterprise
• Shields up, Red Alert, Fire Phasers - Powerslave
• Short Hypnotic Orion Music
• Star Trek Computer Ringtone
• Star Trek Door Bell Ringtone
• Star Trek Doorbell Ringtone
• Star Trek Fan1 Ringtone

Star Trek Ringtones Edit

Beam your phone up with these great ringtones from a variety of Star Trek TV series. Sound effects from the starships, computers and actors are here.

Share Soundboard

Star Trek - original

Category: Television    Right: Personal   

Share "Star Trek - original" Sound:

Download "Star Trek - original" Sound:

Recommended SoundBoards

This is the ultimate Duke Nukem soundboard, with new stuff added as I find it. All of the classic one liners with a few extras! There have been new tracks added. If you only see 41, clear your browser cache!

Yb Better + Ratio + Loud = funny bozos (Suggest sum stuff you would want me to upload in the comments)

The ultimate Gears of War soundboard featuring clips from your favorite COG and Locust characters. (May contain spoilers) XBL: Crimson Carmine

Beam your phone up with these great ringtones from the Star Trek tv series. Sound effects from the star ships, computers and actors are here.

© Copyright 2007-2019

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Published Oct 20, 2012

Trek Tones For Mobile Devices Available On iTunes

It’s official. Star Trek alert tones – for iOS mobile devices -- are now available on iTunes. Fans can choose from more than 100 Original Series and The Next Generation alert tone options. Among the options are Spock: “Live Long and Prosper;" Kirk: “Space. The Final Frontier;” McCoy: “I’m not a magician, Spock;” Picard: “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” Sound effects include a Boatswain Whistle and Communicator Beeps.

The tones can be used in a number of ways on a user’s phone, such as reminders, Tweets, ringtones, email notifications, text message alerts and calendar notifications. The Star Trek tones are available now on iTunes and cost 99 cents each.

Tones can be found on your iOS device by

-Opening iTunes

-Searching for "Star Trek"

-Scrolling down to "Alert Tones"

-Clicking "See All"

Readers on mobile iOS can link directly to the iTunes Store here for The Original Series, here for The Next Generation, and here for selections from both series.

Get Updates By Email

TREK: Sounds 4+

Ringtone & notification sounds, designed for iphone.

• #52 in Music
• 3.6 • 12 Ratings

iPhone Screenshots

Description.

Use the sounds you love to set as your ringtones or notification sounds. Sounds are created to give the nostalgic feeling of the Star Sci-Fi movies and shows from the 60's to today. Sounds can be exported as ringtones, notifications, individual contact's notifications, and alarms. This soundboard contains: - 500+ sounds - Sounds are categorized into eras to make them easier to find. - Export the sounds to be set with GarageBand and found in your system [ Please allow 2 to 4 seconds when pressing to preview the sounds to fetch them from my folder host ] PSA: Don't set "Auto-destruct armed" as a notification at the airport. *Please consider this app a donation for the work of collecting and organizing the sounds in a convenient manner to use these public domain sounds which can be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/treksoundsauthorization/home *Please do not ask me in reviews or by mail to include anything trademarked, such as theme music or other properties. I respect copyrights and will not include them.

Ratings and Reviews

I don’t get what to do with most of the sounds. Like how do I set the sound to say unauthorized access or something? A lot of these sounds don’t seem like they have any points since you can’t really set those sounds anyway.

Developer Response ,

Thank you! There's a guide in the app of how to set the sounds with Apple's 'Garage Band' app. If you still need help setting the sounds, write to [email protected]

Ringtones/alert tones one at a time? Get all at once!

You can have sound files from every Trek show, movie and other Science Fiction series in one app! Make your ringtone, reminders, alerts unique. You install only the sounds you want to save space. All sounds have previews so you know what you’re getting.

Love this so much!

Thank you for building this app! Great central resource for all the Star Trek sounds you could ever want. And thank you for including the tutorial for adding these as ringtones, not the easiest thing to do on iOS

App Privacy

The developer, NSTE, LLC , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

• Developer Website
• App Support
• Privacy Policy

Family Sharing

Up to six family members can use this app with family sharing enabled., more by this developer.

Sci-Fi Themes

TREK: Icons

Sci-Fi: Widget Maker

Sci-Fi Calculator Widget

You Might Also Like

SNESynth: Chiptune Power!

Jam with Jordan

Siren Sounds Ringtones

Blip Box — Drum Synth

ASI Audio 3DME BT

• Photography

Star Trek: The Original Series Sound Effects

Star Trek Sound Effects (From the Original TV Soundtrack)

September 1, 1987 69 Songs, 40 minutes ℗ 1987 GNP Crescendo Records

You Might Also Like

Sound Effects Library

Alan Howarth

SFX Connection

The Hollywood Edge Sound Effects Library

Finnolia Sound Effects

Essential Sound Effects

Anton Hughes

Africa, Middle East, and India

• Côte d’Ivoire
• Congo, The Democratic Republic Of The
• Guinea-Bissau
• Niger (English)
• Congo, Republic of
• Saudi Arabia
• Sierra Leone
• South Africa
• Tanzania, United Republic Of
• Turkmenistan
• United Arab Emirates

Asia Pacific

• Indonesia (English)
• Lao People's Democratic Republic
• Malaysia (English)
• Micronesia, Federated States of
• New Zealand
• Papua New Guinea
• Philippines
• Solomon Islands
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• France (Français)
• Deutschland
• Luxembourg (English)
• Moldova, Republic Of
• North Macedonia
• Portugal (Português)
• Türkiye (English)
• United Kingdom

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina (Español)
• Bolivia (Español)
• Virgin Islands, British
• Cayman Islands
• Chile (Español)
• Colombia (Español)
• Costa Rica (Español)
• República Dominicana
• Ecuador (Español)
• El Salvador (Español)
• Guatemala (Español)
• Honduras (Español)
• Nicaragua (Español)
• Paraguay (Español)
• St. Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• St. Vincent and The Grenadines
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Turks and Caicos
• Uruguay (English)
• Venezuela (Español)

The United States and Canada

• Canada (English)
• Canada (Français)
• United States
• Estados Unidos (Español México)
• الولايات المتحدة
• États-Unis (Français France)
• Estados Unidos (Português Brasil)
• 美國 (繁體中文台灣)

Get Yourself Star Trek Computer Sounds

Star Trek fans are usually technology fanatics. This stems from the fact that if you grew up when any "generation" of Star Trek episode was on, then you quickly became obsessed with the cool gadgets that the Star Trek crew carried and used throughout the ship (or on planets). Now that the world has progressed with tremendous technological advancements, many of those technologies are now a reality. Just last week, I had my temperature scanned with a probe that the nurse simply ran across my forehead. I had to double check to make sure I hadn't just entered the Enterprise sick bay. And then, I grinned... Star Trek is here.

Unfortunately, when it comes to our cell phones and computers, the cool sounds that came along with those old Trek gadgets simply never became a reality. Our computers beep and alert using all of the standard operating system sounds, our phones ring or buzz in various ringtones - but what ever happened to those cool Star Trek sound effects that our "communicators" are supposed to have? We've achieved some of the Tricorder technology with our GPS gadgets but where are the metallic beeps and chirps?  MakeUseOf has always offered some of the best sound resources for readers, such as a FindSounds , or a review of the Soungle - free sound effects website . While Star Trek sounds are certainly hard to find and exist only in some of the most obscure places on the Internet - today, I offer MakeUseOf readers a few useful sources for Star Trek computer sounds.

Finding Star Trek Computer Sounds

If you've been a Trekkie for years, or you just became a new member of the Trekkie community after the last film, you've probably learned pretty quickly that finding funky sounds for your mobile phone or your computer isn't exactly the easiest task in the world. If you perform a Google search, you'll quickly discover that most of the best files are buried deep in someone's web server archive. For some reason, many of the Star Trek fans don't seem to be the most advanced webmasters, so quite a few of these sites are hard to navigate. The following list offers some of the coolest Star Trek computer sounds, movie effects and even audio quotes that most Star Trek fans will immediately recognize from their favorite Star Trek generation. Without further ado, let's "Make it so."

Pimp Out Your Mobile Phone with Star Trek

While most folks go to the Next Pimp website to pimp out their phone with various hip-hop ringtones from Beyoncé or Justin Timberlake, Trek fans can go to the Star Trek page to download from a list of ten very cool Star Trek computer sound effects.

These are mostly a collection of various short computer sound effects from the various Star Trek series. One of my favorites is the Torpedo; but dooropen, Communicator and Incoming Message are also great for different functions of a Windows Mobile device, like an incoming email message or an appointment due. There aren't many options for ringtones here, but when you're done downloading all of these sound effect, your phone will be transformed into a device that will probably turn a few heads.

Composer Juan Portela Shares His Love of Star Trek

While digging through various forums and obscure web sites for some of the best Star Trek sound effects, I came across a link to a ZIP file, hidden within the website of composer Juan Portela.  Oddly, I couldn't find a single link to this file from his actual site, but the link from a forum post worked great. Clicking on the link will immediately open the ZIP file. After extracting it, you'll have a selection of 9 awesome "alert" sound effect files that you can use to totally trick out your PC's various sounds such as errors, email messages, just about anything else.

I've used a few of these on my own computer - I think in terms of Star Trek computer sounds for various Windows alert events, this collection is perfect.  These are essentially various sound files which Juan edited mostly from the airlock sounds. I've set all of my appointment settings to use these sound files whenever an alarm is due, and I still grin every time it goes off. After a while, you'll feel like you're living in the middle of your favorite Star Trek episode.

Download Star Trek Ringtones from CellSea

Personally, I've found the best mobile phone ringtones and sound effects just by doing a search for "Star Trek" on CellSea . Just a few examples from the list of free ringtones available there include the Enterprise computer voice saying "Command Functions are offline," a ringtone made from communicator beeps, and even one made from the Star Trek TNG main theme song.

After listening to the Star Trek TNG and experiencing a lot of great childhood memories flooding back - it's now my new mobile ringtone. This assumes that you can use MP3 ringtones on your phone, as that is the format of most of these.  Obviously, since they are MP3 files, you can use all of these awesome Star Trek sound files for your computer sound effects as well.

Hundreds of Star Trek Computer Sounds at the SoundBoard

SoundBoard is probably one of the best sources for Star Trek sounds that I've seen. A search for "Star Trek" at SoundBoard results in two pages of results. Each of those results features about a dozen tracks or so of some of the best Star Trek sound bites or sound effects that you'll find anywhere.

The SoundBoard features this very cool player that lets you test out all of the tracks within each category before you download it to your computer.

If you're looking for Star Trek WAV files, a fan from the UK created a "Matt's Movie Sounds" page, and there's an entire collection of over fifty audio quotes from the original series as well as The Next Generation. Another obscure source of Star Trek sounds is Frank's Radio , where there's a directory of over 100 Star Trek WAV files that include computer responses, beeps, sound effects and quotes.

Do you know of any other valuable resources for Star Trek sounds? Share them with other Trekkies in the comments section below!

Log in to Freesound

Problems logging in, almost there.

We've sent a verification link by email

Didn't receive the email? Check your Spam folder, it may have been caught by a filter. If you still don't see it, you can resend the verification email .

Default title

Communicatorchirp_sttos_recreated.wav.

February 12th, 2013

A recreation from scratch of the iconic chirpy noises emitted by a communicator in the original series of Star Trek. This sequence of 10 chirps is patterned after an original sound effect, but not created from it in any way. The sound of each chirp is not just a downward sweep of tones (I used square waves), but the key aspect to getting it to sound right is a very steep pass-band filter. The envelope of each chirp is also patterned after the original, but not an exact duplicate. This might make a great ringtone for trekkies. I would use it myself if only I could figure out how to get it into my dumbphone. For that purpose, however, you might need to add a gap of silence at the end (not sure how ringtones are set up, really).

Wave (.wav)

Sample rate

1 year, 5 months ago

Thank you! Will be out 1/14/2023: https://tracksidescience.libsyn.com/43-we-were-burned-out-spring-2021

9 years, 5 months ago

Thanks for the comment. You shouldn't have much trouble finding ("out there") the original clip that I used as a guide for this. It had a sequence of multiple chirps that were mostly slightly different from each other, and I figured that would be the best because someone could always just cut out one or three (or whatever) for isolated use. I don't remember now how many synthesis tricks I had to pull to get similar-sounding chirps, but as you might guess, a lot of it was just manually comparing the reference sound's spectrum to what I was coming up with. I had to synthesize a suitably-close chirp-like noise to start with, duplicate it to match the beat of the original, and then do lots and lots of noise shaping, lots of filtering and so on. I do recall that a characteristic part of this (and many other ST:TOS sounds, to a lesser extent) is a rather strong band-pass filtering. But one of the advantages of recreating these from scratch is that you end up with something that is truly clean and pure, as you have noted.

This is really nice. clean and Optimal. I have heard a lot of commutator chirps around, and most seem to be badly recorded clips from the old show, and others are pretty far off. Yours is the best I've heard.

• 381 downloads

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

STAR TREK: SOUND EFFECTS – OST 1988

Audio with external links item preview.

Share or Embed This Item

Flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

6,465 Views

52 Favorites

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

In collections.

Uploaded by MUNDO ESTELAR on June 28, 2020

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

Suggested Searches

• Climate Change
• Expedition 64
• Mars perseverance
• SpaceX Crew-2
• International Space Station
• View All Topics A-Z

Humans in Space

Earth & climate, the solar system, the universe, aeronautics, learning resources, news & events.

NASA Analysis Confirms a Year of Monthly Temperature Records

Hubble Finds Surprises Around a Star That Erupted 40 Years Ago

Nasa watches mars light up during epic solar storm.

• Search All NASA Missions
• A to Z List of Missions
• Upcoming Launches and Landings
• Spaceships and Rockets
• Communicating with Missions
• James Webb Space Telescope
• Hubble Space Telescope
• Why Go to Space
• Commercial Space
• Destinations
• Living in Space
• Explore Earth Science
• Earth, Our Planet
• Earth Science in Action
• Earth Multimedia
• Earth Science Researchers
• Pluto & Dwarf Planets
• Asteroids, Comets & Meteors
• The Kuiper Belt
• The Oort Cloud
• Skywatching
• The Search for Life in the Universe
• Black Holes
• The Big Bang
• Dark Energy & Dark Matter
• Earth Science
• Planetary Science
• Astrophysics & Space Science
• The Sun & Heliophysics
• Biological & Physical Sciences
• Lunar Science
• Citizen Science
• Astromaterials
• Aeronautics Research
• Human Space Travel Research
• Science in the Air
• NASA Aircraft
• Flight Innovation
• Supersonic Flight
• Air Traffic Solutions
• Green Aviation Tech
• Drones & You
• Technology Transfer & Spinoffs
• Space Travel Technology
• Technology Living in Space
• Manufacturing and Materials
• Science Instruments
• For Kids and Students
• For Educators
• For Colleges and Universities
• For Professionals
• Science for Everyone
• Requests for Exhibits, Artifacts, or Speakers
• STEM Engagement at NASA
• NASA's Impacts
• Centers and Facilities
• Directorates
• Organizations
• People of NASA
• Internships
• Our History
• Doing Business with NASA
• Get Involved
• Aeronáutica
• Ciencias Terrestres
• Sistema Solar
• All NASA News
• Video Series on NASA+
• Newsletters
• Social Media
• Media Resources
• Upcoming Launches & Landings
• Virtual Events
• Sounds and Ringtones
• Interactives
• STEM Multimedia

Apollo 1 Resources

Lakita Lowe: Leading Space Commercialization Innovations and Fostering STEM Engagement 

Coming in Hot — NASA’s Chandra Checks Habitability of Exoplanets

NASA’s Repository Supports Research of Commercial Astronaut Health  

NASA Astronauts Practice Next Giant Leap for Artemis 

Amendment 21: A.3 Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry: NSPIRES cover page issue and Delay of Proposal Due Date

North Carolina Volunteers Work Toward Cleaner Well Water

Ed Stone, Former Director of JPL, Voyager Project Scientist, Dies

Webb Finds Plethora of Carbon Molecules Around Young Star

NASA’s Roman Mission Gets Cosmic ‘Sneak Peek’ From Supercomputers

ARMD Solicitations

Winners Announced in Gateways to Blue Skies Aeronautics Competition

NASA, Industry to Start Designing More Sustainable Jet Engine Core

Food Safety Program for Space Has Taken Over on Earth

NASA’s Laser Relay System Sends Pet Imagery to, from Space Station

Artemis Generation Shines During NASA’s 2024 Lunabotics Challenge 

NASA Wallops to Support Sounding Rocket Launch

From Psychology to Space: Alexandra Whitmire’s Journey and Impact in NASA’s Human Research Program

Diez maneras en que los estudiantes pueden prepararse para ser astronautas

Astronauta de la NASA Marcos Berríos

Resultados científicos revolucionarios en la estación espacial de 2023

15 min read

55 Years Ago: Star Trek Final Episode Airs, Relationship with NASA Endures

Johnson space center.

The voyages of the Starship Enterprise came to a sudden and premature end on June 3, 1969, with the airing of the final episode of the Star Trek original television series. Ironically, the show’s cancellation came just six weeks before humanity embarked on its first voyage to land on another celestial body. Although the show ran for only three seasons, it generated a devoted fan base disappointed by the cancellation despite their write-in campaign to keep it on the air. But as things turned out, over the decades Star Trek evolved into a global phenomenon, first with the original episodes replayed in syndication, followed by a series of full-length motion pictures, and eventually a multitude of spin-off series. With its primary focus on space exploration, along with themes of diversity, inclusion, and innovation, the Star Trek fictional universe formed a natural association with NASA’s real life activities.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry first had the idea for a science fiction television series in 1964. He presented his idea, a show set in the 23 rd century aboard a starship with a crew dedicated to exploring the galaxy, to Desilu Productions, an independent television production company headed by Lucille Ball. They produced a pilot titled “The Cage,” selling it to the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) network that then bought a second pilot titled “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” NBC introduced the show to its fall 1966 lineup, with the first episode “The Man Trap” airing on Sep. 8. To put that date in perspective, NASA launched Gemini XI four days later, one of the missions that helped the agency achieve the Moon landing nearly three years later. Meanwhile, Star Trek’s Starship Enterprise continued its fictional five-year mission through the galaxy to “seek out new life and new civilizations.” The makeup of the Enterprise’s crew made the show particularly attractive to late 1960s television audiences. The major characters included an African American woman communications officer, an Asian American helmsman, and a half-human half-Vulcan science officer, later joined by a Russian-born ensign. While the show enjoyed good ratings during its first two seasons, cuts to its production budget resulted in lower quality episodes during its third season leading to lower ratings and, despite a concerted letter-writing campaign from its dedicated fans, eventual cancellation.

Despite the show’s cancellation, Star Trek lived on and prospered in syndication and attracted an ever-growing fan base, turning into a worldwide sensation. Often dubbed “trekkies,” these fans held the first of many Star Trek conventions in 1972. When in 1976 NASA announced that it would name its first space shuttle orbiter Constitution, in honor of its unveiling on the anniversary of the U. S. Constitution’s ratification, trekkies engaged in a dedicated letter writing campaign to have the orbiter named Enterprise, after the starship in the television series. This time the fans’ letter writing campaign succeeded. President Gerald R. Ford agreed with the trekkies and directed NASA to rechristen the first space shuttle. When on Sept. 17, 1976 , it rolled out of its manufacturing plant in Palmdale, California, appropriately accompanied by a band playing the show’s theme song, it bore the name Enterprise. Many of the original cast members of the show as well as its creator Rodenberry participated in the rollout ceremony, hosted by NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher . Thus began a lengthy relationship between the space agency and the Star Trek brand.

During the development of the space shuttle in the 1970s, the need arose to recruit a new group of astronauts to fly the vehicle, deploy the satellites, and perform the science experiments. When NASA released the call for the new astronaut selection on July 8, 1976, it specifically encouraged women and minorities to apply. To encourage those applicants, NASA chose Nichelle Nichols, who played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the Starship Enterprise, to record a recruiting video and speak to audiences nationwide. She came to NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston in March 1977, and accompanied by Apollo 12 and Skylab 3 astronaut Alan L. Bean , toured the center and filmed scenes for the video in Mission Control and other facilities. NASA hoped that her stature and popularity would encourage women and minorities to apply, and indeed they did. In January 1978, when NASA announced the selection of 35 new astronauts from more than 8,000 applicants, for the first time the astronaut class included women and minorities. All distinguished themselves as NASA astronauts and paved the way for others in subsequent astronaut selections. Nichols returned to JSC in September 2010 with the Traveling Space Museum, an organization that partners with schools to promote space studies. She toured Mission Control and the International Space Station trainer accompanied by NASA astronaut B. Alvin Drew . She also flew aboard NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne telescope aircraft managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, in September 2015.

Meanwhile, the Star Trek brand renewed itself in 1979 as a full-length motion picture with the original TV series cast members reprising their roles. Over the years, several sequels followed this first film. And on the small screen, a reboot of sorts occurred in 1987 with the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a new series set in the 24 th century aboard the Enterprise-D, a next generation starship with a new crew. That series lasted seven seasons, followed by a near-bewildering array of spin-off series, all built on the Star Trek brand, that continue to this day.

James Doohan, the actor who played Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, the Starship Enterprise’s chief engineer, had early associations with NASA. In April 1967, Doohan visited NASA’s Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center in California, spending time with NASA test pilot Bruce A. Peterson. A month later, Peterson barely survived a horrific crash of the experimental M2-F2 lifting body aircraft. He inspired the 1970s TV series The Six-Million Dollar Man, and the show’s opening credits include film of the crash. Doohan narrated a documentary film about the space shuttle released shortly before Columbia made its first flight in April 1981. In January 1991, Doohan visited JSC and with NASA astronaut Mario Runco (who sometimes went by the nickname “Spock”) toured the shuttle trainers, Mission Control, and tried his hand at operating the shuttle’s robotic arm in the Manipulator Development Facility. In a unique tribute, astronaut Neil A. Armstrong , the first person to step on the lunar surface , spoke at Doohan’s retirement in 2004, addressing him as “one old engineer to another.”

George Takei, who played Enterprise helmsman Lt. Hikaru Sulu, and his husband Brad, visited JSC in May 2012. Invited by both Asian American and LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Groups, Takei spoke of leadership and inclusiveness, including overcoming challenges while in Japanese American internment camps during World War II and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. He noted that Star Trek remained ahead of its time in creating a future when all members of society could equally participate in great undertakings, at a time when the country struggled through the Civil Rights movement and the conflict in Southeast Asia. The inclusiveness that is part of NASA’s culture greatly inspired him. JSC Director Michael L. Coats presented Takei with a plaque including a U.S. flag flown aboard space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-135 mission. He also visited Mission Control and spent some time with Robonaut.

Leonard Nimoy played the science officer aboard the Starship Enterprise, the half-human, half-Vulcan Mr. Spock. The actor watched in September 2012 when space shuttle Enterprise arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, on the last leg of its journey to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, where it currently resides. “This is a reunion for me,” observed Nimoy. “Thirty-five years ago, I met the Enterprise for the first time.” As noted earlier, the Star Trek cast attended the first space shuttle’s rollout in 1976. Following his death in 2015, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti paid tribute to Nimoy aboard the International Space Station by wearing a Star Trek science officer uniform, giving the Vulcan greeting, and proclaiming, “Of all the souls I have encountered … his was the most human.”

Captain James T. Kirk, played by actor William Shatner, a life-long advocate of science and space exploration, served at the helm of the Starship Enterprise. His relationship with NASA began during the original series, with references to the space agency incorporated into several story lines. In 2011, Shatner hosted and narrated a NASA documentary celebrating the 30 th anniversary of the Space Shuttle program , and gave his time and voice to other NASA documentaries. NASA recognized Shatner’s contributions in 2014 with a Distinguished Public Service Medal , the highest award NASA bestows on non-government individuals. NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Communications Robert “Bob” N. Jacobs presented the medal to Shatner. The award’s citation read, “For outstanding generosity and dedication to inspiring new generations of explorers around the world, and for unwavering support for NASA and its missions of discovery.” In 2019, Shatner narrated the NASA video We Are Going , about NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the Moon. He has spoken at numerous NASA-themed events and moderated panels about NASA’s future plans. On Oct. 13, 2021, at the age of 90, Shatner reached the edge of space during the NS-18 suborbital flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle, experiencing three minutes of weightlessness.

Elements of the Star Trek universe have made their way not only into popular culture but also into NASA culture. As noted above, Star Trek fans had a hand in naming the first space shuttle Enterprise. NASA’s Earth observation facility aboard the space station that makes use of its optical quality window bears the name the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF). The connection between that acronym and the name of a Klingon officer aboard the Enterprise in the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series seemed like an opportunity not to be missed – the facility’s official patch bears its name in English and in Klingon. Several astronaut crews have embraced Star Trek themes for their unofficial photographs. The STS-54 crew dressed in the uniforms of Starship Enterprise officers from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, the second full-length feature motion picture of the series. Space shuttle and space station crews created Space Flight Awareness (SFA) posters for their missions, and more than one embraced Star Trek themes. The Expedition 21 crew dressed in uniforms from the original series, while the STS-134 crew chose as their motif the 2009 reboot motion picture Star Trek.

As much as Star Trek has influenced NASA, in turn the agency has left its mark on the franchise, from episodes referencing actual and future spaceflight events to NASA astronauts making cameo appearances on the show. The first-season episode “Court Martial” that aired in February 1967 featured a photograph of the December 1965 Gemini VI launch adorning a wall aboard a star base. In the second-season episode “Return to Tomorrow,” airing in February 1968, Captain Kirk in a dialogue about risk-taking remarks, “Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn’t reached the Moon?” a prescient reference to the first Apollo mission to reach the Moon more than 10 months after the episode aired. Astronaut Mae C. Jemison , who credits Nichelle Nichols as her inspiration to become an astronaut, appeared in the 1993 episode “Second Chances” of Star Trek: The Next Generation , eight months after her actual spaceflight aboard space shuttle Endeavour. In May 2005, two other NASA astronauts, Terry W. Virts and E. Michael Fincke , appeared in “These are the Voyages…,” the final episode of the series Star Trek: Enterprise.

In the 2016 documentary “ NASA on the Edge of Forever: Science in Space ,” host NASA astronaut Victor J. Glover states, “Science and Star Trek go hand-in-hand.” The film explores how for 50 years, Star Trek influenced scientists, engineers, and even astronauts to reach beyond their potential. While the space station doesn’t speed through the galaxy like the Starship Enterprise, much of the research conducted aboard the orbiting facility can make the fiction of Star Trek come a little closer to reality. Several of the cast members from the original TV series share their viewpoints in the documentary, along with those of NASA managers and scientists. Over the years, NASA has created several videos highlighting the relationship between the agency and the Star Trek franchise. In 2016, NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden led a video tribute to celebrate the 50 th anniversary of the first Star Trek episode.

In 2021, on the 100 th anniversary of Gene Roddenberry’s birth, his son Rod hosted a virtual panel discussion , introduced by NASA Administrator C. William “Bill” Nelson , about diversity and inspiration, two ideals the Star Trek creator infused into the series. Panelists included Star Trek actor Takei, Tracy D. Drain, flight systems engineer for the Europa Clipper spacecraft at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim , Swati Mohan, guidance and operations lead for the Mars 2020 rover at JPL, and Hortense B. Diggs, Director of the Office of Communication and Public Engagement at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mutual attraction between NASA and Star Trek stems from, to paraphrase the opening voiceover from the TV series, that both seek to explore and discover new worlds, and to boldly go where no one has gone before. The diversity, inclusion, and inspiration involved in these endeavors ensure that they will live long and prosper.

Explore More

55 Years Ago: Manned Orbiting Laboratory Cancellation

25 Years Ago: STS-96 Resupplies the Space Station

15 Years Ago: First Time all Partners Represented aboard the International Space Station