If you’ve been following our coverage of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum’s massive, two-year endeavor to bring the classic Enterprise model back to life – come on, of course you have! – the long wait is over, as the starship returned to public view on July 1.

We were invited to join the conservation team for the first time last January, while the Enterprise was still in its 1991-era state, at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, and got a great up-close-and-personal view of the eleven-foot starship.

After a year of study and planning, the Enterprise was disassembled at the end of December and spread apart for more in-depth review and analysis of the paint, adhesives, and internal structure – and our team went back into the lab in January 2016, just before the real heavy-duty work began.

Finally, the Enterprise was completely overhauled this spring – rewired for new lighting and motor components, repaired to address structural issues, and repainted to bring back the 1967-era appearance – before being shipped back to Washington, D.C. for public unveiling.











This Tuesday, our team joined some other press attendees at an early preview of the new Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, allowing us to get a special look at the fully-refit starship before yesterday’s big public debut. In addition to our newest interview with the Smithsonian specialists, we were again joined by photographer Kelly Phillips who captured the new “old” vision of the Constitution-class starship in its new home.

Stay tuned for our final Enterprise interview videos in the coming days, where we discuss the new spacedock – err, display case – that holds the starship in public view, the revised paint job, and some newly-built secrets in the reconstructed model!