Captain Kirk, aka William Shatner, Wakes Up Space Shuttle Discovery Crew

It was a perfect blending of science fact and fiction.

As the crew of the space shuttle Discovery wiped the dust from their eyes Monday morning, preparing to undock from the International Space Station, they were awakened by a special message from Capt. James T. Kirk, aka William Shatner.

With the original 1960s "Star Trek" television series theme song -- written by Alexander Courage -- playing in the background, beginning with Shatner's classic voice-over of "Space, the final frontier ..." it cut to a new message provided by the 79-year-old actor, who reprised his role as the legendary United Federation of Planets starship captain:

William Shatner, who played Capt. James T. Kirk in the TV series "Star Trek," surprised the space shuttle Discovery crew this week when he offered them a "Trek"-style wake-up call.

"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."

NASA's decision to use the "Star Trek" theme was the result of a public contest to choose a song that would be used to awaken Discovery's crew on this particular mission in space.

The irony of the moment is that, after almost 150 million miles and 39 flights, including 13 to the International Space Station, this is the final mission of the Discovery, which plans to spend its retirement on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington.

Space shuttle Discovery was first launched in 1984 to deploy three communications satellites. Since then, Discovery made more flights than any other shuttle in the fleet. Among its mission highlights, Discovery carried the historic Hubble Telescope into space in 1990. And in 1998, it returned Sen. John Glenn -- the first American to orbit Earth in 1962 -- to space, where he became the oldest human to fly in space at the age of 77.

And whether the space program will continue to go where no one has gone before is still a lingering question. For the immediate future, American astronauts will have to rely on hitching a ride into space on the Russian Soyuz rocket.

Meantime, private companies such as Virgin Galactic and Bigelow Aerospace look to boldly revolutionize space commerce and take private citizens into the final frontier.

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