Star Trek’s Restored Galileo Shuttle Finds A Home At NASA’s Space Center Houston
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Star Trek has always been at the center of imagination and technology and has always dared us to boldly go where no one has gone before. Now one of the Original Series’ most important props — the Shuttlecraft Galileo — has found a new home, on public display at NASA’s Space Center Houston.
The Galileo has been undergoing restoration for a while now, courtesy of the Galielo Restoration Project. Now Space.com reports that the restored shuttle will eventually migrate to its new home in the Johnson Space Center’s museum and visitor center. Home to both NASA‘ s Mission Control and astronaut corps, the Space Center is a perfect home for an iconic piece of Star Trek history.
The shuttlecraft is one of the most iconic and recognizable relics from the original Star Trek, and it was thought to be lost for almost 20 years. Props restorer Adam Schneider believes that this one piece represents Star Trek’s connection to space exploration and science. He bought the Galileo at auction with his wife Leslie in 2012, and says, “I think a NASA facility is the embodiment of manned space travel. This is the beginning of [Space Center Houston’s] entrée into how fictional visions of space travel led to the actual thing occurring.”
Roger Bornstein, a spokesman for the Space Center Houston, said of the Galileo, “It’s really an honor to have one of the crafts [from the original ‘Star Trek’ series] on display and hopefully connect another generation of kids with a career in space, math or science.”
Interestingly, the plans and blueprints for the Shuttlecraft Galileo were drawn up and compiled by Star Trek fans via the Internet. There were no original blueprints from Star Trek of Galileo available for Schneider’s restoration. You can see some of the restoration work in the video below, and a ton more pictures at the project’s Facebook page.
