The model of the Star Trek starship USS Enterprise, which has been featured prominently at the Smithsonian's basement gift shop, is about to be beamed up to the central atrium on Tuesday, June 28, as part of the upcoming celebration of the museum's 40th birthday.
Malcolm Collum, a conservator for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, explained that they decided to showcase the Enterprise replica in recognition of the historical significance it had gained over the years.
The Star Trek starship model was donated by Paramount Studios to the museum in 1974, back when Star Trek was simply a short-lived television series. However, just when the show started to gain popularity among sci-fi fans, the Enterprise replica started to show several structural failures and was already falling apart.
Some of the housings for the Enterprise's engine, known as nacelles, have started to sag, while the paint job on the model were also beginning to flake. This spurred Collum to transfer the starship to the museum's conservation laboratory for some much needed repairs in 2014.
Collum and his colleagues were able to restore the USS Enterprise to resemble its original form back in 1967, when it was used during the filming of the Star Trek episode, "Trouble with Tribbles." They made use of stills and photographs from old episodes in order to get the look of the original. This was the first time the replica received modifications for close to 50 years.
Some of the modifications to the starship Enterprise Collum and his team made include applying a fresh coat of green-gray paint to return it to its original color, replacing old incandescent bulbs with LEDs that won't cause any fires when turned on and adding an authentic deflector dish to replace the one that was missing when the replica was donated in 1974.
"When you turn on the lights, it just brings the ship to life," Collum pointed out. "It's an incredible transformation."
The Smithsonian also collaborated with Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) visual effects studio to add details to the Enterprise to make it look more like an authentic starship that has traveled through space for years. ILM placed streaks and specks of bronze paint to its exterior, as well as letterings on the side of the starship using the same technology used to make the original markers on the model.
The USS Enterprise is one of the many aerospace and aviation models set to be featured during the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's birthday celebration. The museum will stay open all night on Friday, July 1, to allow visitors to stargaze at the Smithsonian's observatory, view space-themed films and even participate in scavenger hunts organized by the museum.
