On Sept. 8, 1966, a diverse crew of explorers launched a five-year mission when “Star Trek” debuted on NBC.

The mission turns 50 today.

Team Enterprise grew from a spunky little series with a limited FX budget and a whole lot of creativity into an international, nay intergalactic, phenomenon, including a half-dozen more series, three cycles of major motion pictures, books, video games, websites and enough fanfolk to populate a galaxy or two.

And the franchise just might live long and prosper for another half-century, with a new streaming series on the way in January, the summer release “Beyond” headed for Blu-ray and scores of conventions, podcasts, websites and digital tributes on the launch pad.

But today we celebrate “Star Trek’s” roots right here in our own hemisphere. Here are, thanks to our friends at IMDb and the “Star Trek” wiki website Memory Alpha, let’s boldly go to some of “Star Trek’s” soaring Southern California moments.

(MAP POINTS)

1. HOLLYWOOD

The TV trek began at the old Desilu Studios on Gower Street. And it continued not far away at Paramount Studios, where interior scenes from many of the movies were filmed.

2. AGUA DULCE

Remember “Arena,” the 1967 episode when Captain Kirk (William Shatner) defied the Vegas oddsmakers and pulled off a last-round knockout of that reptilian hunk The Gorn? You may have recognized those distinctive jutting rocks in the background as the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation’s beloved Vasquez Rocks, near Agua Dulce from that episode (and other Gorn-free moments, too).

3. REDONDO BEACH

In the 1967 episode “Operation — Annihilate!” giant melty gummi-slugs invade a planet that looks a whole lot like the TRW campus in Redondo Beach (now owned by Northrop Grumman). Another pop-culture gem: Christopher Boyce was a TRW employee a few years later when caught selling secrets to the Soviets in an incident that would become the best-selling book and movie, “The Falcon and the Snowman.”

4. SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY

Some folks think the desert is otherworldly; “Trek” concurred. In “Final Mission,” the El Mirage dry lake bed in San Bernardino County turns in a stellar performance as the planet Kolarus III during a 1990 episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

5. TEMECULA

“All Good Things,” a 1994 episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” filmed a sequence at the Callaway Vineyards. Captain Picard lands in a simulated future where he tends his grapes in a place that looks a whole lot like a vineyard in the Temecula Wine Country. It’s a pretty place; not one you’d ever want to beam up from once you’ve drained a glass or two.

6. LONG BEACH

Long Beach City Hall’s spacey towers and curved meeting room stood in for Starfleet Academy in the 2009 movie reboot, directed by J.J. Abrams. Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock) snarl at each other about the rigged Kobayashi Maru test (real fans understand this, trust me). The Press-Telegram reported in 2007 that City Manager Pat West and members of his staff even got to sit in on the filming.

7. VAN NUYS

When seeking a mammoth array of shiny gear to serve as a starship engine room, Abrams headed to the San Fernando Valley. The Anheuser-Busch brewery in Van Nuys did the trick. The Roscoe Boulevard site also is juicy in L.A. history, as home of the pioneering theme park Busch Gardens. The tropical amusement center entertained parkgoers with an array of exotic birds and low-key rides from 1966 to 1979.

8. WHITTIER

Also in the 2009 reboot, Spock squares off with the Vulcan Science Academy’s overbearing overlords. When the boorish board sneers at his half-humanism, he turns down their admittance and opts to attend Starfleet Academy. But the real star of this scene is the one-of-a-kind ceiling of the Sky Rose Chapel at Rose Hills Memorial Park.

9. TUSTIN

One more from 2009: When Star Fleet recruits scramble to learn their missions after a call for help from the planet Vulcan, they scatter through a mammoth shuttle bay. All the action, extensively augmented by CGI artists, takes place inside a blimp hangar at Marine Corps Air Station Tustin. It’s a big scene for Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura, who needs no CGI assist for chutzpah.

10. SAN MARINO

The Huntington Library’s out-of-this-world gardens represented varied wonderlands in episodes from at least three different series. Need a paradise? Call the Huntington.

11. BACK TO HOLLYWOOD

Feeling nostalgic about the crew? Take a spacewalk among them. Most everyone who played a major “Trek” character, as well as franchise creator Gene Roddenberry, are honored with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.