The first episode of Star Trek aired on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966, so in today's era of social media hashtags, that makes it #StarTrekDay. In honor of the occasion, we've compiled a gallery of photos of the 11-foot model of the U.S.S. Enterprise employed for special effects photography in the original show.
The science-fiction spaceship completed its stated "five-year" mission a little early, in 1969, so Paramount donated the historic model to Smithsonian in 1974. Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum exhibits the famous fictional spaceship now and provided these photos of it.