Luke's lightsaber is space bound!

Look for some footage and news in the next couple of days as the prop used as Luke's lightsaber (as opposed to the real one ;) in the original Star Wars makes it's journey from Skywalker Ranch to NASA 's Houston Space Center. As part of the 30th anniversary celebration, the original saber will be blasted off into outer space on the next flight of the space shuttle Discovery in October.

The journey begins August 28th (tomorrow!), and will include a full escort for the trip with Chewie, a troop of stormies, and more of our Star Wars friends who will usher the lightsaber over to the hands of NASA at a ceremony to be held at the Oakland International Airport.

KEWL!

Linkies:
Sci Fi Wire
TFN

Edit - Look for coverage by the official starwars.com blog, and on starwars.com tomorrow.

..and for the true space geek in you, check out NASA TV! Awesome live video from space.
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Also... recent Battlestar Galactica news at FRAK