A Starship Named Columbia
by Philip Chien
In the "Star Trek Enterprise" episode "E Squared" the Enterprise crew initially thinks the starship they encounter is NX-02 Columbia. NX-02 was named in honor of the space shuttle Columbia and the STS-107 crew who died on February 1, 2003 when their shuttle broke up, just 16 minutes before it was scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center.
Many fans have noted that Starfleet appears to be following NASA's space shuttle names with the NX class. Enterprise (NASA OV-101, Starfleet NX-01) was the prototype space shuttle used for a series of gliding and landing tests. Columbia (NASA OV-102, Starfleet NX-02) was the first space shuttle to fly in space. If this sequence is followed then the next NX-class starships would be named NX-03 Challenger, NX-04 Discovery, NX-05 Atlantis, and NX-06 Endeavour.
Space shuttle Columbia flew on 28 missions. Its first and last missions will always be the ones which will be remembered the most - STS-1 because it was the very first space shuttle mission, and STS-107 because of the accident. But the 26 flights in between were some of the most productive shuttle missions, and many of the astronauts who flew on those missions had connections to "Star Trek." Here's just a few examples -
Three of the astronauts who flew the shuttle prototype Enterprise in 1977 flew on Columbia's early test flights - Joe Engle and Dick Truly on STS-2, and Gordo Fullerton on STS-3.
Astronaut Bill Shepherd flew on Columbia in 1992. On his next spaceflight he was the commander of the first long duration crew on the International Space Station Alpha. During that mission he noted that the Russian Service Module's command station looked a lot like the bridge of the Enterprise - all they needed was a large screen plasma display to make it perfect.
Jerry Ross flew on Columbia on the STS-55 mission in 1993. Ross appeared in a "Star Trek" television special where he noted that he grew up with the original series and his daughter grew up with "The Next Generation". Daughter Amy Ross also works for NASA and was one of the engineers responsible for the custom built gloves her father wore on his many spacewalks.
The STS-65 crew in July 1994 included astronaut Leroy Chiao. Chiao flew a long duration flight on the International Space Station wearing several hats - he was the commander, the science officer, and also the crew medical officer, in effect combining Kirk, Spock, and McCoy's responsibilities. He was also responsible for communications and engineering to some degree, although there isn't any need for a navigator since the space station remains in orbit around the Earth.
Susan Helms flew aboard Columbia in 1996. Before her first flight in 1993 the STS-54 crew went on the Universal Studios tour in California where they got to put on Star Trek costumes and pose on a mockup of the Enterprise's bridge.
The STS-93 mission in 1999 will always be remembered as the first space shuttle mission commanded by a woman, Air Force Colonel Eileen Collins. But it's also interesting to note that it had the heaviest astronomical payload ever launched by the space shuttle, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and also the lightest, the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System or SWUIS (pronounced "Swiss").
Some astronomers believe that there may be a bunch of small asteroids within Mercury's orbit. They've been named the Vulcanoids after the Roman god Vulcan; a rather appropriate name for what would have to be the hottest solid surface in the solar system. The challenge is they're so close to the Sun, so they're extremely difficult to spot, especially from the surface of the Earth looking through the atmosphere. Even above the atmosphere it's tricky - the Hubble Space Telescope isn't allowed to point that close to the Sun for fear that it might accidentally point AT the Sun and fry its sensitive detectors. Astronomer Alan Stern came up with an innovative approach. Take an ordinary off-the-shelf hobbyist telescope, modify it to fly in space, and mount it on the window in the space shuttle's hatch. Then use the entire space shuttle as a platform to point the telescope next to the Sun. So SWUIS can be thought of as one of the least expensive and least complicated space telescopes with one of the most expensive and complicated pointing platforms!
At one point during the mission Eileen Collins radioed down "Maneuvering to Vulcan attitude" - which one might assume meant she took on a very logical calm demeanor. Or that she typed in the coordinates in the Digital Autopilot to instruct Columbia to rotate to face SWUIS towards the Sun. The reply from mission control? "Acknowledged." The STS-93 mission collected all of the data the SWUIS scientists requested and they’ve been examining it closely to see if they can find any evidence of the Vulcanoids.
Columbia's final successful flight was the STS-109 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002. During the 11 day mission the astronauts performed five spacewalks to upgrade Hubble's systems, including installing the brand-new Advanced Camera for Surveys, and a mechanical refrigerator to repair an infrared camera which had run out of coolant. After the crew completed their spacewalks capcom Mario Runco (a big "Star Trek" fan since the original series premiered in 1966) radioed up, "If you would allow me to turn a phrase, you have enabled mankind to look where no one has looked before."
Many of the 126 astronauts who flew on Columbia are "Star Trek" fans, Millie Hughes-Fulford admitted that she had a "Star Trek" mobile over her daughter's crib when the original series aired.
In the "Star Trek" universe it would be logical to assume that the various spacecraft named Columbia were named after the space shuttle. Of course in real life many of the episodes which mentioned ships named Columbia came out years before the space shuttle program was even conceived! The first mention of a ship named Columbia in the "Star Trek" universe was in the first "Star Trek" ever made! In the 1964 pilot "The Cage" the S.S. Columbia is mentioned as the ship which crashed on the planet Talos IV with Vina its only survivor.
But why was the first space shuttle named Columbia? NASA's official history says it's named after Dr. Robert Gray's sailing vessel and Columbia has always been a patriotic name for American ships. But there's a far more important connection - the Apollo 11 command module was also named Columbia. Challenger, the second space shuttle, was also the name of the Apollo 17 Lunar Module. So the first two operational space shuttles were named after spacecraft used on the first and last Apollo missions to the moon - a rather appropriate connection. It's interesting to note that the Apollo 11 Columbia flew five years after "The Cage" was filmed.
So why was Apollo 11's command module named Columbia? Well it goes back to the 19th century and Jules Verne's classic science fiction story "From Earth to the Moon." In that book a spacecraft is launched from Florida with a three person crew. It goes around the moon but doesn't actually land on the moon, returns to Earth, and is recovered from the ocean. The name of the spacecraft - Columbiad.
Links
Order Enterprise on DVD from Amazon.com.
Order The Cage in both the mixed black and white and color versions on DVD from Amazon.com.
Download a free ebook of "From the Earth to the Moon" from Project Gutenberg.
About the author
Philip Chien has been a "Star Trek" fan since the original series. He was one of the only reporters who actually covered Columbia's final mission, and one of the last people to talk to Columbia's crew before the accident. His website www.sts107.info has more information on the mission and his book, "Columbia - Final Voyage."
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