NASA To Send Luke's Lightsaber Into Space

Verunks writes "In honor of the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, NASA will launch Luke Skywalker's original Jedi lightsaber into space along with the crew of the space shuttle Discovery. The launch is slated for October."

Fired

[Cassius Corodes]

Fired... out of a cannon... into the sun.

Why not George Lucas?

[writertype]

Basically, this is the equivalent of "first post", for this topic, at least.

Careful...

[Treskin]

Hey, now. That's one of the great artifacts of geekdom, and they're risking it on a shuttle launch? I seem to recall NASA's shuttles being a little... what's the word... explody, at times. Losing another crew would be bad enough, but Luke's saber? C'mon!

Really cool if

[dotslashdot]

What would be really cool is if some aliens found it and made operational and then shipped it to me using GalEx (GalaxyExpress). Then I could go up to my boss, rattle my light saber by saying "Look. I am your fodder." Khoo khaa.

American efficiency!

[Anonymous Coward]

Think about it: Russia gets ~$20m for launching a 150lb person into space; by making itself popular, NASA gets _at least_ $20m in extra funding from Congress for sending a 1lb piece of pop culture into space. American efficiency at its best!

Re:Um

[OldManAndTheC++]

Yes. It will be ejected into space, while miles below on the ground, Mark Hamill will reach spaceward, grimacing slightly as if straining on the toilet. The lightsaber will fly towards his outstretched hand through the power of The Force.

This is also how he retrieves his TV remote without getting up.

Great...

[Chlorus]

...now some alien civilization will find it and a) sell it on Ebay for a ludicrous amount or b) brag to various and sundry that they own the original prop. Or they'll just do with it what they'll probably do to the Voyager probes: Toss it in the trash.

Re:Um

[RuBLed]

This is also how he retrieves his TV remote without getting up.

from the toilet?

Not a big deal

[Derek Loev]

Guys, don't worry, I'm sure it's not the real lightsaber. The real one was lost years ago. This is a digitally remastered (better) lightsaber with added features and toys! Very soon you will be able to buy your own original (digitally remastered and better) lightsaber at your local convenience store and you too can shoot it off into space. And it really is a good buy, George Lucas has assured us the money will go to deleting the entire Obi-Wan Darth Vader duel of A New Hope and adding a new scene (digitally remastered and better, of course) with Ewan McGregor. It's going to be great!

NASA to Astronauts: Lose Weight!

[Anonymous Coward]

So NASA can save money by forcing the astronauts to lose mass ("weight"). Perhaps they will be sending waifs into space to save on money -- they'd have less mass, be more photogenic, and you needn't pack much food. Lastly, due to chronic malnutrition they'd have very little energy to engage in those lusty love triangles that seem to plague NASA. It's the perfect plan!

Shouldn't it already be in space?

[Enderandrew]

After Vader cut off Luke's hand, I thought the saber would be tumbling somewhere in the Bespin system.

The irony of that moment is that Luke's father "wanted him to have it", except Luke's father cut off his hand to disarm him of it. And apparently Obi-Wan's interpretation of "he wanted you to have it", is "I took it from him after I left the bastard for dead." Though, I imagine his phrasing seems a little more sentimental.

Re:Careful...

[tsm_sf]

Tragedy is when I cut my finger, comedy is when you fall into an open manhole and die.

- Mel Brooks

Great! Astronaut Fanfilms!

[erroneus]

First the StarWars Kid and now this!

I can't wait to see astronauts "training with a remote" videos and letting people here on earth do the video editing. :) Please, someone donate some storm trooper armor and other stuff as well! :)

Re:NASA must have too much money

[Capt James McCarthy]

Use the budget Luke.

Re:Glad to see...

[cp.tar]

Jesus, no kidding. I wouldn't think this is exactly the kind of publicity NASA needs. Replacing moon rocks with light sabers? That's sacreligious.

Just wait. Soon enough, they'll be modifying the Moon to look like the Death Star.

At least they'll want us to believe they're only modifying it to look like the Death Star, while actual"#$//" NO CARRIER.

Re:Glad to see...

[Anonymous Coward]

i don't know about you, but there's no way i'd go into space not knowing if shit was going to work or not.

You don't have the right stuff. That's why you're a pencil necked dork who lives in your mom's basement.

Re:Glad to see...

[PJ1216]

That's no moon... that's a space station!

Re:The Next Generation

[Bastard of Subhumani]

We went to the moon almost 40 years ago.

What? Nobody believes that round here.

Fired

[blahlemon]

So Darth Vader gets screwed again. Lets face it, the whole series is really about him but noooo, his glory robbing little snot faced kid has got to prance around and steal his thunder. Typical younger generation...

Re:Fired

[sircastor]

the whole series is really about him but noooo....

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Boy, the pressure's really on now.

[seebs]

They're gonna have to be extra careful not to blow this one up or anything, that saber's irreplaceable.

Re:Why not George Lucas?

[everphilski]

Word, bitch, Phantoms like a mallfucker!

Re:Glad to see...

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Always start with wikipedia..

...but please, never stop there.

Re:Fired

[Traa]

So Darth Vader gets screwed again. Lets face it, the whole series is really about him but noooo, his glory robbing little snot faced kid has got to prance around and steal his thunder. Typical younger generation...

Read his blog: http://darthside.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

Amazing story.

Re:Fired

[Simian Road]

Do not want!!!!!

(If you get that, I'll give you a cookie)