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Astronaut pays tribute to Leonard Nimoy from space

Astronaut Terry Virts (@AstroTerry) tweeted this image of a Vulcan hand salute from orbit in the International Space Station as a tribute to actor Leonard Nimoy, who died on Friday.

Nimoy played science officer Mr. Spock in the Star Trek series. Cape Cod, on the east coast of the United States, and Nimoy’s home town of Boston can be seen from the window of the ISS to the right of Virts’ index finger.

Below, a picture from 1976 shows the cast of Star Trek gather as NASA’s space shuttle Enterprise rolled out of the Palmdale manufacturing facilities.

Nimoy can be seen sixth from the left.

Nasa startrek
The cast from Star Trek greets the space shuttle Enterprise in 1976. From left to right: NASA Administrator Dr. James D. Fletcher; DeForest Kelley, who portrayed 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. congressman. Don Fuqua and, Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov).
NASA
Bill Condie

Bill Condie

Bill Condie is a science journalist based in Adelaide, Australia.

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