President Donald Trump tweeted a new logo for his long-hyped Space Force on Friday and, well, people quickly noticed it looked familiar.
After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military!
The logo is almost exactly the same as the Starfleet insignia in the Star Trek franchise.
The new #SpaceForce logo sure looks familiar...
Trekkies and others on the internet pointed out the obvious similarities between the two logos, calling the symbol for the new military service for space operations a rip-off.
@realDonaldTrump lol did you just rip off Star Trek?
Boldly going where we've gone before #SpaceForce
Actor George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek: The Original Series, joked that the military should pay the franchise royalties.
Ahem. We are expecting some royalties from this... https://t.co/msYcJMlqjh
But, as it turns out, this isn't the first time the government has apparently copied the famous sci-fi show's emblem.
The logo for the Air Force Space Command, a division of the Air Force that was replaced by Trump's new Space Force last month, also looked a lot like the Starfleet logo with its signature arrowhead-shaped pennant and circular orbit design.
The Starfleet fascination among space types in the military isn't new; this was Space Command's logo, which immediately preceeded Space Force
And yet, there's more!
As others pointed out on Twitter, Star Trek's Starfleet symbol was ACTUALLY inspired by/descended from/modeled after NASA's famous meatball logo designed in 1959.
1959: Origins of NASA seal and meatball logo https://t.co/1Wm2QqYbAT 1964: Star Trek's Starfleet delta insignia first designed by William Ware Theiss and Gene Roddenberry https://t.co/8OMhjcMlpY 1982: Air Force Space Command 2020: U.S. Space Force
According to an article on Star Trek's website, the Starfleet emblem is "a direct descendant of the vector component of the old NASA (and later UESPA) logos."
The design also resembles a golden pin awarded to NASA astronauts in the 1960s, per the article.
So, first came the logo from NASA, then Starfleet, then Air Force Space Command, and now Space Force. Basically, nothing is new and the military and Star Trek have been copying each other for decades.
