For Robert Hurt, some of his earliest memories are of sitting with his dad in their den watching the original Star Trek and dreaming of space travel and astronomy.

Now 50 years later, Hurt is a physicist working at the California Institute of Technology on NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, peering deep into areas of space that have always been hidden from us.

Like Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the starship USS Enterprise, Hurt is a space explorer.

After Star Trek first aired – 50 years ago today – on Sept. 8, 1966, people could envision a time when the human race would explore space and “boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before.” The show, which ran for three seasons, also began to inspire those kids in PJs or hanging out with friends watching Kirk and Mr. Spock meet aliens and explore distant planets.

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