William Shatner, George Takei, Leonard Nimoy Exchange Tweets To And From Space With Chris Hadfield

Four actors from television's Star Trek franchise recently carried on a conversation on Twitter with Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield (pictured) aboard the ISS which included several references to both the original show and "The Next Generation."

Hadfield had obviously been a fan of the show as a kid (as many of us were, and still are. ed.) So when Shatner, who played Capt. James Kirk on the original series, asked Hadfield "are you twittering from space?," the astronaut replied "Yes, Standard Orbit, Captain, and we're detecting signs of life on the surface."

The blog Vintage Wings of Canada reports that the Canadian Space Agency then invited Shatner (via Twitter) to come to the CSA and chat with Hadfield "live from space. We'd love to show you around." On learning that Hadfield would be aboard the ISS until May, Shatner replied "I can't make any promises but I will see what I can do."

The following day, Hadfield posted a picture of himself on Twitter wearing a red shirt. Red shirts were often worn by Star Trek  "Away Team" members who didn't make it back to the Enterprise. Actor Georgi Takei, who played helmsman Lt. Sulu chimed in, posting about the conversation, which caused Hadfield to Tweet "all we need is @TheRealNimoy to beam in and we'd have an away team."  Takei responded "I'm fine with beaming down with the away team, as long as I don't have to wear the red shirt."

And then, Mr. Spock joined the fun. Leonard Nimoy Tweeted to Hadfield "LLAP" ... shorthand for "Live Long And Prosper."

Buzz Aldrin even got into the thread. He tweeted to Hadfield and Shatner "Neil and I would've tweeted from the moon if we could have but I would prefer to tweet from Mars. Maybe by 2040.

At that point, the Twittersation jumped generations. Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Tweeted to Hadfield "If you get into trouble with Nanites while you're in orbit, I know a guy who can help you contain them. He has experience.

Hadfield switched to Capt. Jean Luc Picard mode, tweeting "Wesley, we've talked about you being on the bridge. I believe you're needed in Engineering."

Leading one to believe that perhaps in space, everyone can hear you laugh.

FMI: www.twitter.com