William Shatner, as Star Trek's Kirk, delivers wakeup call for Discovery STS-133 crew

[Video Link] William Shatner, who, as everyone reading Boing Boing knows, played Captain James Tiberius Kirk on the original Star Trek television series, provided a special message to the crew of space shuttle Discovery during the Flight Day 12 wakeup call today. From the NASA description:

As Alexander Courage's theme song played underneath, Shatner replaced the original television introduction with, "Space, the final frontier. These have been the voyages of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Her 30 year mission: To seek out new science. To build new outposts. To bring nations together on the final frontier. To boldly go, and do, what no spacecraft has done before."

The "Theme from Star Trek" received the second most votes in a public contest from a Top 40 list for NASA's Song Contest. The top two songs with the most votes from that list earned a slot on the list to wake Discovery's crew during its final mission. The total number of votes cast during the four-month contest for STS-133 was 2,463,774. Of that, Star Trek received 671,134 votes (27.2 percent). Shatner recorded the new, special introduction for Discovery's final voyage -- its 39th flight and 13th to the International Space Station.

• [penguinchris]

  I thought it was going to be cheesy (and perhaps it is in a certain sense), but it sent shivers up my spine. Somehow, this really brings home the reality that the shuttle program is actually ending, and that the future of manned spaceflight – every kid’s dream – is incredibly shaky. The inspiration that Star Trek gave to many of us is now dying due to lack of caring by the people in power, so this video rightfully should make us very sad.

• [jeligula]

  They edited out the part where Bill says, “Now drop your cox and grab your sox, you have a full day ahead of you.”

• [Anonymous]

  Bullhockey. We HAVE the money to have social programs AND science programs. We just have to stop giving it away hand over fist to corporations with cushy profit margins and spending it on a bloated military that currently devours 1/2 of all budgetary spending, and that is WITHOUT all the extra billions voted for that hole in the sand called Afghanistan.

  We can have space. The money is there. We can take care of our citizens and look to the future. We just have to take back the leadership of our country from the ignorant swine we allowed to be voted in.

• [JoshuaZ]

  I cried when I saw the report about this this morning. Then I cried when I told a friend about this. Now getting to actually hear it I’m crying again.

  We will reach the stars. It likely won’t be in our lifetimes, but we will eventually. And those distance descendants will look back on their ancestors and marvel that we started with so little.

  (Please, please don’t link to any Sagan videos on this subject. If I watch one right now, I’ll move from a few tears into outright sobbing.)

• [MooseDesign]

  “as everyone reading Boing Boing knows”… that made me chuckle… and then I got a thrill chill and got all bleary eyed with the video and voiceover as the shuttle liftoff and musical crescendo meshed. Just awesome.

• [rebdav]

  And we threw away the Constellation program, I cant help but think it was partly to snub Georgy boy of a legacy.
  Where is the reinvestment in outfits like Armadillo?
  The US should not be funding the Soyuz program when it could have its own system and not available for space launch blackmail.
  Even China and India have defined manned space programs.

  • [Anonymous]

    I’m relatively certain Constellation got thrown away for reasons of budget, not whose legacy it was. Non-reusable spacecraft are not a great way to make space travel less expensive, in the long run. While Constellation would have been cheaper, per-pound, in the near term than the extant space shuttle program, it would have required more investment on a per-mission basis. The entire space shuttle program has cost about $175 billion, which is a fraction of what we’ve spent on war in the last year alone. That includes R&D and the vessels themselves. Broken down across all the missions thus far, average cost is just above $1 billion per mission. When looking at the incremental per-mission costs, new shuttle missions cost about $60-65 million dollars, proving that there is definite value in reusable vehicles.

  • [Wally Ballou]

    we threw away the Constellation program

    One of the count-em-on-one-hand things Obama has done that I agree with. Constellation was basically an extension of the massive cost-plus pork program, locking in the same politically well connected vendors, that the shuttle turned into.

    We can do better for far less money by funding more X-Prize type R&D.

  • [Wally Ballou]

    we threw away the Constellation program

    One of the count-em-on-one-hand things Obama has done that I agree with. Constellation was basically an extension of the massive cost-plus pork program, locking in the same politically well connected vendors, that the shuttle turned into.

    We can do better for far less money by funding more X-Prize type R&D.

  • [Anonymous]

    I have strong doubts that this was the case. Even when it was announced, very few people took it seriously. The most favorable reaction was that it was unrealistic in the political climate of the time (and things are worse now).

• [razen cain]

  This isn’t the end of humans exploring space, it’s just the beginning. Private companies are going to be the future of getting our asses into the great unknown….just ask William Gibson.

  I love this quote from a NY Times article on space tourism.

  “…the prospect is that in a few years, hundreds of suborbital flights could be taking off every year.”

  Fuck ya.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/science/space/01orbit.html

• [Stephen]

  NASA is, in fact, funding outfits like Armadillo (including Armadillo, and SpaceX who are sending a mission to the ISS this year). NASA is NOT funding Soyuz, though thankfully (since it is far the most reliable crewed space vehicle) the Europeans are.

  NASA doesn’t want Constellation, Congress is trying to force it on them. So I think it’s more likely not a politically based decision to cancel Constellation.

• [MrsBug]

  Awww, that’s so cool!

• [Anonymous]

  Tis inspired to load up these 2 videos in tabs and play at the same time, and its clear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny1qn26h9gU
  http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/21903/Google_Military_has_Artificial_Intelligence_Prog_/
  and I washed it down with this
  http://www.ehow.co.uk/video_4980864_make-real-romulan-ale-mixed.html
  and beamed me up with this
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8LOIJhADrU
  and bringin it all back home w/ this
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8eDFpW65tc
  Space, the final frontier
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN3MGN899yE
  hey
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0hTtsqiFCc

• [Anonymous]

  The simple, and depressing, fact is that we have done nearly everything that a manned space program can currently do, that unmanned missions cannot. Given nation-sized budgets and the current (and near term) technology, not much more can be advanced before running into some extremely profound problems with space travel within the solar system.

  We’ve reached the point of diminishing returns with chemical rocket launched, near-Earth, manned space programs. From a mission point of view, We’ve figured out how to do everything that manned orbital vehicle flight requires and are not making any large advancements for our billions and billions invested.

  This is not to say that there are no recent returns; the International Space Station has taught us how to assemble and repair spacecraft IN SPACE, and materials science, biotech, and medicine have benefited especially from 0-g research.

  The shuttle, however, never panned-out as the lower cost reusable alternative to pure rockets. It is an especially inefficient way to service the I.S.S. now that it is constructed. Computer and remote guidance has advanced to the point that no one is even needed in the cockpit anymore, so why have a spaceplane that flies people around at all when a capsule for people (and payload tugs for supplies and satellites) is a more elegant solution to the problem?

  Still, the idea of the shuttle is romantic and audacious. I’ll miss the hell out of it.

  • [AnthonyC]

    Unfortunately, I have to agree.
    Pushing humanity out any further into space than we have already gone would require commitments and cooperation on a scale and timeline not currently possible. Building a colony in near earth orbit, let alone successfully traveling to and returning from mars, would require decades of work and trillions of dollars with our present capabilities.
    Even in Star Trek, sending humans to mars didn’t happen until after humanity unified following first contact (see TNG, the episode where they encounter a “graviton ellipse”).

    It will happen, I’m sure, but not yet. Not until we solve some of the issues we have here at home. Or maybe not- maybe the drive to push outwards could be what drives us to solve our problems on Earth.

• [MarlboroTestMonkey7]

  goose bumps

• [burritoflats]

  Some friends and I met Shatner backstage after a two-person show he participated in at a small, local theater. He was more than gracious, seem genuinely interested in us and allowed us to take a group photo with him (turns out the camera had no film!) – this was all done at a time when his “celebrity stock” was at a down slope – I’ve since become a real fan of Shatner’s and was overjoyed to find out he’d done this message for the crew. He’s the king of voiceovers!

• [Dicrel Seijin]

  I’m wondering how many of those astronauts watched “Star Trek” or one of its successor series and was inspired to study science?

  I see it as fitting that one of the last wake-up calls to the shuttle crew was Shatner as Captain Kirk.

  I love the idea of astronauts, but it seems that way we will be exploring space in the near future (and perhaps far future) is through robotic probes. Yes, it is not as romantic or as inspiring, but it is practical, and when it comes down to it, we are still exploring, if only by proxy.

  • [Spikeles]

    I love the idea of astronauts, but it seems that way we will be exploring space in the near future (and perhaps far future) is through robotic probes

    And we all know well that could work out.

    • [Dicrel Seijin]

      Truthfully, I had not thought millennia ahead. I was thinking of the rovers on Mars and the probes that are headed to or are already circling the various planets (and the one that will get to Pluto in a few years).

• [Chang]

  Great. In tears on a Tuesday morning. THanks, Boingboing! :)