Happy First Contact Day -- April 05, 2063

 

On this day 41 years from now, on the evening of Thursday, April 5, 2063, a Vulcan T'Plana-Hath Class Surveyor ship landed near a former U.S. military missile complex outside of the town of Bozeman, Montana. This historic event for the human race occurred just hours following another historical event -- the flight of the Phoenix, the first human-made, manned warp spacecraft to achieve faster-than-light speed using an experimental warp drive.

The Phoenix, constructed using a derelict USAF ICBM rocket with a titanium casing, was the revolutionary work of Dr. Zefram Cochrane, the human inventor of warp drive, with the assistance of his partner and fellow engineer, Lily Sloane.

On April 5, about 11 A.M. (MST) the Phoenix took off from a missile silo with Dr. Cochrane in the pilot's seat and two co-pilots: Georgi LaForge and William Riker. The first stage of the craft used traditional chemical-fueled rocket engines. First-stage shutdown and separation was performed in orbit. The nacelles were then extended and the warp core and plasma injectors were brought online. It took several seconds to accelerate to critical velocity and then the Phoenix achieved light speed (Warp 1).

*The flight of the Phoenix attracted the attention of a passing Vulcan survey ship, the T'Plana-Hath, causing the Vulcans, in accordance to procedure, to officially make First Contact with the human race.

The ship landed near the complex outside of Bozeman where the captain of the T'Plana-Hath, Commander Solkar, formally greeted Dr. Cochrane with the traditional Vulcan salute, "Live long and prosper." This would be responded by a simple handshake and a thanks from Cochrane.

The Phoenix would later be put on permanent display in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

The successful flight of the Phoenix would later lead to the founding of Starfleet in 2130 and innovations in the original warp engine designs based on Dr. Cochrane's work would carry on into the next century with the creation of starships with faster engines that would lead the human race into deep space and further contact with other lifeforms and new civilizations.

Even more important, the first official meeting between humanity and the Vulcans would form the beginnings of a formal alliance that would grow to become the United Federation of Planets (UFP) founded in San Francisco in 2161.

In the spirit of universal peace and prosperity, this blogger would like to wish each and every one of y'all a Happy First Contact Day today -- and my prayers that such a hopeful future may be more than just a work of excellent science fiction someday.

* Though First Contact Day is remembered by humanity as the day human beings were first introduced to the Vulcan people, a Vulcan survey ship crashed on Earth near Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania, USA in 1957 while observing the Soviet satellite Sputnik -- the first artificial human satellite launched into Earth's orbit. The surviving crewmen allegedly lived on Earth for several months awaiting rescue, remaining incognito in order to avoid "cultural contamination with a primitive species" and posing as human travelers near the small town.

There is also anecdotal evidence that other extra terrestrials have also visited Earth in the years and centuries prior to First Contact, perhaps even as far back as early human history, or even pre-human history.

This blogger would like to thank the outstanding fans of the Star Trek franchise for the information used in this article, especially the folks at Memory Alpha.