The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum hosted an exclusive press preview yesterday of the interactive exhibition Star Trek: The Starfleet Academy Experience. StarTrek.com was on hand for the event during a glorious summer day in New York City, and has a selection of photos for fans to check out below.

Special guests included George Takei, Star Trek's original Hikaru Sulu, who happily flashed the Vulcan greeting gesture as he greeted the crowd; former NASA Astronaut and Senior Advisor for Space Programs at the Intrepid, Mike Massimino, President of the Intrepid Museum; Susan Marenoff-Zausner; President and CEO of EMS, Christoph Rahofer.

Part of the ongoing Star Trek 50th anniversary celebration, the exhibition will open to the public on July 9. It will offer visitors the chance to experience life as a Starfleet Academy cadet, as they attend the Academy's Career Day in the 26th century.

After student orientation, cadets will visit nine zones focused on the training center's specialties: Language, Medical, Navigation, Engineering, Command and Science. Following these interactions, cadets will be assigned a specialty and a demeanor based on their individual training. The Starfleet Academy Experience will be presented in a dedicated 12,000 square foot indoor space specially designed for the experience on Pier 86.

Die-hard Star Trek fans may recognize many of the props and costumes on display from the television show. In addition, there will be plenty of interactive activities and unique technology, including Leap Motion, voice recognition to communicate in Klingon, a Medical Tricorder table with RFID sensors, planet projection mapping, holograms and a target game using Star Trek's iconic phasers.

During the preview, Jordan Hoffman of Engage: The Official Star Trek Podcast spoke with Takei about the memorable sword fighting scene in “The Naked Time.” Takei would pretend to fence in his backyard as a child, playing The Adventures of Robin Hood. When the producers asked if he could fence, he said yes, having no formal training.

“I opened it (the phonebook) up to fencing lessons, there was a studio right on Sunset Boulevard and so I made an appointment the next Saturday,” said Takei. “I took my first fencing lesson from a Mr. Faulkner, who turned out to be the man who choreographed the fencing sequences in The Adventures of Robin Hood.”

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Massimino, who is a longtime Trek fan, remembers staying up all night and viewing Star Trek (2009) from space.

"NASA had contacted Paramount,” Massimino told Hoffman. “(They) somehow worked on an agreement and loaded a copy on the computers that we got to watch in space."

To hear more of these interviews, tune in to Engage: The Official Star Trek Podcast next week.

The Intrepid Museum will also host a number of Star Trek-themed public programs to commemorate the 50th anniversary, including movie nights, themed Operation Slumbers (the Museum's popular overnight experience), education programs, two Trek-focused summer camp weeks, themed Astronomy Nights and more.

The experience will open to the public on Saturday, July 9 and remain open through October 31, 2016. Tickets are now on sale for the general public. They're available to purchase through the Museum’s website and at the Museum’s Welcome Center box office located at 46th Street and 12th Avenue. Entry tickets will be timed and advance purchase is strongly recommended.

The experience will be open Sundays–Thursdays from 10:00am–8:00pm and Friday–Saturday from 10:00am–9:00pm. Last entry will be one hour prior to closing. All tickets will be timed entry. Tickets will be available for $25 Adults, $18 Children, $23 Seniors and FREE for children 4 and under. Special discounted prices are available for groups of 15 or more. For group sales, please contact Intrepid Museum’s sales representatives at StarTrek@intrepidmuseum.org or call 646.381.5010. Special pricing is also available for Museum members.

For more information on The Starfleet Academy Experience, including VIP ticket packages and other programming at the Museum please visit www.intrepidmuseum.org/Startrek.