Starship Enterprise Model

For nearly a decade this model sat on Gene Roddenberry's desk. He lent it to Paramount for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in the late 1970s, and it vanished. Forty-five years later it turned up in a storage unit and was listed on eBay, where fans spotted its construction details and alerted his son Rod.

If you've watched the original series' opening titles, you've seen this ship fly past: 33 inches of wood and plexiglass, built in 1964 by Richard C. Datin Jr. from Matt Jefferies' designs, and made before the 11-foot model at the Smithsonian. Lou Zutavern cleaned and stabilized it without erasing the wear. MIT's link predates the loan: students stuck "Save Star Trek" bumper stickers on network executives' cars. Decades before the police car on the Great Dome, that was the hack.

This is its first showing on the East Coast. Entry is included in general admission ($20 adults, $10 ages 6 to 18), daily 10am to 5pm, last entry 4:30pm.