Inspired Enterprise-Star Trek, NASA, the Smithsonian and Aerospace

[Blackstar]

https://schifferbooks.com/products/inspired-enterprise?_pos=1&_sid=d6864e1eb&_ss=r


Inspired Enterprise : How NASA, the Smithsonian, and the Aerospace Community Helped Launch Star Trek
By Glen E. Swanson and Foreword by Margaret A. Weitekamp

Available on Jun 28, 2025
Boldly discover how NASA, the Smithsonian, and the aerospace community helped craft, legitimize, and popularize the beloved television show Star Trek.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry sought to create a work of science fiction that would immerse viewers not only through clever storylines and modern visual effects, but also by presenting the story in a scientific and technological context that felt believable. To this end, Roddenberry, a former WWII combat pilot, used his connections in the aerospace industry to seek out the latest and greatest technology.

This book, authored by Glen E. Swanson, former chief historian at the NASA Johnson Space Center, uncovers the story of how NASA, the Smithsonian, and the aerospace industry helped craft, legitimize, and popularize the beloved television show Star Trek. Further context is provided through the discussion of additional factors behind the success of the show, including merchandising and syndication.

Size: 6.0in x 9.0in  |  Pages: 272  |  135 color and b/w photos
Binding: Hardback
ISBN: 9780764369360
PRICE:  $35.00

[Blackstar]

I have read the manuscript and there is a lot of fascinating stuff in here. Glen did a lot of research and found all kinds of ties to the aerospace industry at the time. Gene Roddenberry didn't simply go to RAND, TRW, NASA, and others for ideas and information, he also used those ties to promote the show and demonstrate its credibility.

[Blackstar]

[Coastal Ron]

I have read the manuscript and there is a lot of fascinating stuff in here. Glen did a lot of research and found all kinds of ties to the aerospace industry at the time. Gene Roddenberry didn't simply go to RAND, TRW, NASA, and others for ideas and information, he also used those ties to promote the show and demonstrate its credibility.

I watched the original show when it was broadcast, and most of the follow-on shows and movies. But THIS was something that I had not heard, so nice that it is finally coming out!

[Blackstar]

[Blackstar]

https://daviddoylebooks.com/toys/inspired-enterprise-how-nasa-the-smithsonian-and-the-aerospace-community-helped-launch-star-trek-hardcover-2weey

[Blackstar]

https://thespacereview.com/article/5029/1

Inspiring Star Trek and NASA
by Dwayne Day
Monday, July 28, 2025

Inspired Enterprise: How NASA, the Smithsonian, and the Aerospace Community Helped Launch Star Trek
by Glen Swanson
Schiffer, 2025
hardcover, 288 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-7643-6936-0
US$35

In spring 1967, only a short time after the devastating Apollo 1 fire, Leonard Nimoy, who played Mister Spock on Star Trek, visited NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland where he was greeted enthusiastically by NASA employees. Although demoralized over the tragic deaths of the astronauts, many at NASA were fans of Star Trek and thought of the Enterprise and its crew as the NASA of the future, a positive future of humans exploring the stars. This is one of the many connections that the show had to NASA at the time that is recounted in a new book by my friend Glen Swanson.

Swanson, the former chief historian at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, has written Inspired Enterprise: How NASA, the Smithsonian, and the Aerospace Community Helped Launch Star Trek. In the book, Swanson recounts the ties between Star Trek, NASA, the Smithsonian Institution, and the aerospace community, and how these ties “helped craft, legitimize, and popularize the beloved television show Star Trek.” He has done a tremendous amount of archival research in multiple untapped archives as well as conducted many interviews, exploring how creator Gene Roddenberry sought to craft a show that was a believable depiction of future spaceflight by researching space travel and technology, but also how Roddenberry used these connections to publicize and promote the show.

[Blackstar]

[Blackstar]

Glen Swanson:
"On July 14 I was invited to lead a panel discussion at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center as part of their Engineering Colloquium Series. The topic was my new book "Inspired Enterprise: How NASA, the Smithsonian and the Aerospace Community Helped Launch Star Trek." The panel consisted of myself along with Ann de Forest, daughter of Kellam de Forest. Kellam was one of the first technical consultants on the series. The third panelist was Barbara Brennan who retired from the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in 2012 after serving 31 years as an Exhibition Designer and Chair of the Exhibits Design and Technology Division. That is Barbara's photo on the cover of my book beneath the image of the Enterprise which is shown being readied for the 1992 Star Trek exhibit that she helped create.
The video of that Goddard panel is now accessible on NASA's website where it can be viewed online or downloaded at"



https://images.nasa.gov/details/20250714_B3_EC_Inspired%20Enterprise_Glen%20Swanson-Ann%20de%20Forest-Barbara%20Brennan

[Blackstar]

From Glen Swanson:

"Get Inspired Today!
My publisher reports that they still have inventory available but it is running low. They have ordered a second printing which hopefully will be out by the end of the year. With the recently imposed 50% tariffs on India (where my book is published), it remains uncertain regarding the status of what the new cover price will be.
I still have signed copies available for purchase directly from me for $45 each which includes shipping within the U.S. You will get some cool free goodies with each order plus the book will arrive in a neat bubble mailer."

[Blackstar]

[Blackstar]

Interview with the author:

https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space/episodes/187?autostart=false

[Blackstar]

https://thespacereview.com/article/5119/1

[sanman]

Here's a famous photo:

https://www.space.com/21856-shuttle-enterprise-with-star-trek-cast.html



(Gotta love those sideburns & bell-bottoms)

Also, didn't Andre Bormanis (producer for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager)  also work for NASA at some point?

[Blackstar]

Here's a famous photo:

https://www.space.com/21856-shuttle-enterprise-with-star-trek-cast.html
(Gotta love those sideburns & bell-bottoms)

Also, didn't Andre Bormanis (producer for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager)  also work for NASA at some point?

Glen's book is really about the connections between NASA and Star Trek before that famous photo was taken. Right from the start of production, Gene Roddenberry and those who worked for him were cultivating connections with aerospace, including NASA.

As to your second question, by coincidence, I went to grad school with Andre when he was just pitching scripts to Star Trek: Voyager [he was not involved in TNG]. They didn't buy his initial story proposals, but they hired him as a science consultant. I don't believe he ever worked for NASA, although he and I both had NASA-sponsored scholarships during the 1990s.

[sanman]

Here's a famous photo:

https://www.space.com/21856-shuttle-enterprise-with-star-trek-cast.html
(Gotta love those sideburns & bell-bottoms)

Also, didn't Andre Bormanis (producer for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager)  also work for NASA at some point?

Glen's book is really about the connections between NASA and Star Trek before that famous photo was taken. Right from the start of production, Gene Roddenberry and those who worked for him were cultivating connections with aerospace, including NASA.

As to your second question, by coincidence, I went to grad school with Andre when he was just pitching scripts to Star Trek: Voyager [he was not involved in TNG]. They didn't buy his initial story proposals, but they hired him as a science consultant. I don't believe he ever worked for NASA, although he and I both had NASA-sponsored scholarships during the 1990s.

Wow, that's an interesting little side note. Any sci-fi pitches from yourself? What were you both doing grad studies in, if I may ask?

[Blackstar]

Wow, that's an interesting little side note. Any sci-fi pitches from yourself? What were you both doing grad studies in, if I may ask?

I really didn't have it in me to become a TV writer, and didn't want to do that. He was in the space policy masters degree program and I was in a Ph.D. program, focused on space policy and national security policy. Andre had a computer science background and was older than me. After he made his initial pitches, they asked him about his background. They were intrigued that he had a technical background, had been studying space policy, and was interested in writing for TV. So he got hired part time as a technical consultant, then later promoted to full-time science consultant on Voyager, where I think he sold a few scripts. Later he got hired as a writer/producer for Enterprise. (Note that in television, the term "producer" can mean "writer." It's different than for movies, where the producer controls the money.)

[Addendum: I first met Glen Swanson a few years before I met Andre, but have not communicated with the latter in a long time.]

[Star One]

https://thespacereview.com/article/5119/1

OT I know but the one book I’m interested in there Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon hasn’t been released in the UK so no audible release. It seems increasingly arbitrary which space related books published in North America get released outside of it.

[Blackstar]

https://thespacereview.com/article/5119/1

OT I know but the one book I’m interested in there Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon hasn’t been released in the UK so no audible release. It seems increasingly arbitrary which space related books published in North America get released outside of it.

I have it. I have not read it. I know somebody who is an expert on Gemini who has some quibbles with it. He has a review in the works. He said that overall it is good, but doesn't really open up new subjects or demonstrate a deep dive into untapped sources.

[Star One]

https://thespacereview.com/article/5119/1

OT I know but the one book I’m interested in there Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon hasn’t been released in the UK so no audible release. It seems increasingly arbitrary which space related books published in North America get released outside of it.

I have it. I have not read it. I know somebody who is an expert on Gemini who has some quibbles with it. He has a review in the works. He said that overall it is good, but doesn't really open up new subjects or demonstrate a deep dive into untapped sources.

Thanks. I’ll wait for their review as it sounds like it will be informative in if it’s worth getting.