Fully restored USS Enterprise debuts at Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

After two years, the original model from the 1966 series is back on display, with new lighting.

June 28, 2016, 3:03PM By MeTV Staff

A few months ago we wrote about the Smithsonian's endeavor to restore the original model of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: The Original Series. Paramount donated the 11-foot prop to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in 1974. Originally, the model spaceship was displayed in the Arts and Industries Building’s Life in the Universe exhibit, and it moved locations a few times in the decades since. From March 2000 onward, the Enterprise had been living in a display case on the lower level of the Museum’s store.

On September 11, 2014, the model was removed from the floor for restoration. Click on the story above to learn more about the restoration process. Today, the model has risen from the basement, fresh and beautiful, and made its debut in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall.

On Friday, July 1, the museum celebrates the 40th birthday of its building in Washington, D.C., and the ceremonious reopening of the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall. To mark the occassion, they are throwing an all-night public party inside the museum. You can go see the Enterprise aglow with its new LED lighting then.

Or you can feast your eyes on this video posted earlier today by the invaluable Star Trek fan site Trek Core [via Reddit].