Fact and fiction blurred this week when a real-life astronaut boldly went where no man has gone before and conversed from orbit via Twitter with the crew of television's "Star Trek: Enterprise."

"Star Trek" fans rejoiced Friday after Captain James Kirk of the starship Enterprise, or rather the actor who played him on the iconic sci-fi series, swapped tweets with a Canadian astronaut.

A New York aerospace museum opened the space shuttle Enterprise to the public Thursday.

The final frontier may be tough, but, as a damaged wingtip proves, the space shuttle Enterprise's final journey by barge through New York is no picnic.

The US space shuttle Enterprise bowed out Friday on America's biggest stage -- a flyover of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan's skyscrapers -- before going to a museum in New York at the end of an era in American space travel.

The US space shuttle Enterprise on Friday leaves the US capital atop a Boeing 747 jet for a final flyover of New York City as it heads toward a museum where it will go on display.

Discovery on Thursday became the first spaceship of the retired US shuttle fleet to enter its permanent home as a museum artifact, marking a solemn end to the 30-year manned spaceflight program.

Discovery on Thursday became the first spaceship of the retired US shuttle fleet to enter its permanent home as a museum artifact, marking a solemn end to the 30-year manned spaceflight program.

Discovery on Thursday will become the first spaceship of the retired US shuttle fleet to enter its permanent home as a museum artifact, marking a solemn end to the 30-year US space flight program.

Piggybacking aboard a Boeing 747, the space shuttle Discovery made a dramatic flyover of Washington Tuesday before touching down near its final resting place, a museum outside the US capital.

Piggybacking aboard a Boeing 747, the space shuttle Discovery made a dramatic flyover of Washington Tuesday on the way to its final resting place, a museum outside the US capital.

Piggybacking aboard a massive airplane, the US space shuttle Discovery made a dramatic flyover of Washington Tuesday on the way to its final resting place, a museum outside the US capital.

The shuttle Discovery, the most journeyed spacecraft of the now-retired American fleet, on Tuesday made its final flight from Florida toward the Washington area museum where it will go on display.

A piece of the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia has surfaced in eastern Texas, where a severe drought has dried up a lake and exposed debris from the 2003 accident, NASA said Tuesday.

The shuttle Atlantis cruised home for a final time Thursday, ending its last mission to the International Space Station and closing a 30-year chapter in American space exploration.

The Atlantis crew woke to the song "God Bless America" at 0129 GMT early Thursday as they prepared to make the final touch down in NASA's 30 year shuttle program.

Atlantis made its final laps around the Earth on Wednesday as NASA prepared to bring down the curtain on its 30-year shuttle program.

The end of the US space shuttle program brings the start of a new chapter for the remaining orbiters, which will soon take up residence as museum pieces in Florida, Virginia, California and New York.

The crew of Atlantis undocked Tuesday from the International Space Station, wrapping up the last visit by a US shuttle to the orbiting outpost and setting its sights on an emotional homecoming.

Two US astronauts have wrapped up the last spacewalk of the shuttle era at the International Space Station, where Atlantis is docked on the final mission of the 30-year US program.