According to a number of websites (collectSpace for example) NASA is preparing to launch a genuine Star Wars lightsaber™ into space on a future shuttle mission. A film prop used as a laser weapon in the film will be on board the October launch of Discovery. Whether or not this is appropriate is now a subject of some debate at self-professed geek home SlashDot.

We couldn’t find a press release for this so we’ve put a call in to NASA to find out if it is actually true. In the meantime, please remember that – as NASA has told us – real lightsabers can’t (for the forseeable future) be made.

UPDATE – 29/08/07

Florida Today has now moved on this story, quoting NASA spokesman James Hartsfield as saying: “It is not infrequent that we fly artifacts and other items for museums and other organizations.” Which raises two questions: what else have they flown and is a movie prop really an artefact? According to the Ottawa Citizen the last time a “piece of pop-culture” was flown was September 2006 when Monopoly pieces were sent into orbit.

CollectSpace now has a photo gallery of the ceremony that took place when the prop landed in Houston. Bigelow Aerospace previously offered to ‘fly your stuff’ into space but orders are no longer being taken unfortunately.

Image: NASA