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NASA's new 'IXS Enterprise' is a spaceship worthy of James T. Kirk

The concept art for what a theoretical warp drive-enabled NASA spacecraft could look like.

Image Credit: Mark Rademaker/Flickr

NASA scientist Harold White unveiled a new concept design for a spaceship with a faster-than-light-speed warp drive engine yesterday that most sci-fi fans will probably describe as gorgeous.

It also features the most famous spaceship name known to humanity, the Enterprise, an obvious nod to sci-fi series Star Trek.

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As Star Trek star LeVar Burton noted in an interview with VentureBeat, sometimes art imitates life, and sometimes life imitates art — especially when it comes to inspiring new gadgets and technologies.

To be clear, we haven’t yet figured out how to create a warp drive, but that isn’t stopping White from imagining what a warp drive-powered vehicle might look like. For the concept, he teamed up with artist Mark Rademaker, whose background includes designing spaceships for Star Trek novels and other stories within the Trek universe.

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Related: Engage! NASA is developing warp drive tech inspired by Star Trek


For more information about the IXS Enterprise, check out NASA’s White explaining the Warp-enabled spaceship concept in the video embedded below. And for more photos, visit Rademaker’s Flickr stream.

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