"So, Jim, did Earth's first space station look as much like an Apple store as this Starfleet vessel?"
Where would be the best place to watch the new "Star Trek" film -- an IMAX theater loaded with top-quality sound systems? a breezy drive-in with a dashboard full of Starbursts? a tiny screen on the International Space Station?
Wait. What?
Yes, in between facilitating the perilous, arduous spacewalks the current shuttle crew is conducting to repair the Hubble telescope, NASA techs managed to find five free hours to reformat a copy of "Star Trek" so it could be beamed up to the astronauts aboard the ISS, at the request of die-hard Trekker, U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt.
As reported by the Times of London: "After dinner on Friday, Mr. Barratt, along with Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, and Koichi Wakata from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, settled into the node of the spaceship, strapped their feet to the floor to stop them floating during the screening and watched the specially-adapted film on a computer."
The crews of the fictional sci-fi shows are probably jealous, wherever they are. But Barratt says they inspired him to pursue his current line of work.
" 'Star Trek' blended adventure, discovery, intelligence and storytelling that assumes a positive future for humanity," Barratt said in a statement. "The International Space Station is a real step in that direction, with many nations sharing in an adventure the world can be proud of."
Yes, but how does the new Uhura look in zero-G?
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