CAPE CANAVERAL - Actor
George Takei played the helmsman of the original USS Enterprise on the classic
TV series "Star Trek," but he was in awe Monday at Kennedy Space
Center when he saw engineers and technicians making space travel a reality.
"I'm an actor. We just
created the illusion of space. But here, the real thing is being done,"
Takei said. "What I see being done here is really the launching pad of the
future."
Takei, 69, is best known
for playing Mr. Sulu on the cult classic,
which aired from 1966 through 1969. He and the fictional crew of the Starship
Enterprise explored space and defended the United Federation of Planets.
More recently, though,
Takei came out as a homosexual, and he came to KSC to talk with workers about
the value of diversity in complex team efforts.
"Star Trek certainly
demonstrated that. We had visual diversity -- an African woman, an Asian man, a
pointy-eared alien. But you also heard the diversity -- the Scottish accent of
the engineer, the Russian accent of our navigator, the southern drawl of our
doctor," he said.
"The point we were
trying to make is that there are diversities that you can hear. But another
layer of that diversity that you can't see or hear is sexual orientation. And
sexual orientation can contribute to the strength of whatever enterprise you
are engaged in."
Takei, who now appears periodically
on "The Howard Stern Show" and is cast in the NBC TV show
"Heroes," also had an opportunity to tour restricted areas at KSC.
He got a close look at
components being readied for launch to the International
Space Station, NASA's twin shuttle launch pads and technicians working on a
winged orbiter in its processing hangar.
"When I walked through
the orbiter assembly area, they all looked at me as something of a hero. But
we're just actors. They are the real heroes," Takei said. "They are
the ones that are in fact creating the future that we fabricated for
television."
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