Happy 50th 'Star Trek'! NASA & Friends Send Space-Age Twitter Wishes

NASA Officials and Cast from "Star Trek."

In 1976, NASA's space shuttle Enterprise rolled out of its manufacturing facility and was greeted by NASA officials and cast members from the "Star Trek" television series. From left to right: NASA Administrator James Fletcher; DeForest Kelley, who played Dr. "Bones" McCoy on the series; George Takei (Mr. Sulu); James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott); Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura); Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock); series creator Gene Roddenberry; U.S. Rep. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.); and Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov). (Image credit: NASA)

The hit series "Star Trek" celebrates the 50th anniversary of its television debut today (Sept. 8). Castmembers, astronauts and space agencies around the world have used social media to commemorate the series, tweeting photos and videos along with their congratulations. Here are some of their best tweets of the day.

The original "Star Trek" series only ran for three years (1966-1969). But thanks to the support of its massive fan base, the franchise is sure to live long and prosper.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.

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