Big news for the Star Wars fans: the original prop light saber used by actor Mark Hamill in 1977 in the Star Wars movie will be carried in space, onboard the Discovery space shuttle.
The STS-120 mission will carry the precious load into space on October 23, along with the already-announced crew members (the commander is Air Force Col. Pamela A. Melroy, the second woman to lead a shuttle mission; the flight mission specialists will be Scott E. Parazynski, Army Col. Douglas H. Wheelock, Navy Capt. Michael J. Foreman and Paolo A. Nespoli, a European Space Agency astronaut from Italy).
The light saber’s travel to the orbit will symbolically mark 30 years of existence for the Star Wars franchise, created by legendary director George Lucas.
"We have had a relationship with NASA on a small scale with small events," said Tracy Cannobbio, a spokeswoman for Lucasfilm Ltd.
"We just thought, we should do something together. It was a no brainer."
The historical flight for the light saber was anticipated by a lot of ground-and-air ceremonies, all bearing a tongue-in-cheek nuance. For example, the saber’s trip from Oakland International Airport in California to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas was accompanied by Han Solo’s giant Wookie co-pilot Chewbacca, while the landing of the plane (belonging to Southwest Airlines) was greeted and saluted by a group of Storm Troopers, joined by a whimsical impersonation of Darth Vader and the R2-D2 robot. Boba and Jango Fett were also present.
Later on, the light saber- which had been in George Lucas’ custody, at his Skywalker Ranch in California- received presidential-like honors from the local police, which escorted the artifact all the way to the Houston Space Center. After its arrival there, the Star Wars prop item quietly took its place in a special vault, previously reserved only for moon rocks. NASA plans a public exhibition on September 3, which coincides with the Labor Day.
The artifact’s road to space will reach its climax when it will be welcomed onboard the International Space Station. It will not remain there though, because the habitat is already very crowded:
"It's absolutely coming back. There will be no space junk," said Julie Kuenstle, a spokeswoman for Space Center Houston.
However, the astronauts will be pleased to see the pop-culture symbol that has inspired so many generations:
"Crew members of past shuttle missions have been inspired by Star Wars," Kuenstle added. "We are considering this a huge honour."
