The year of 2026 marks a historic chapter for Star Trek as the legendary franchise will celebrate its 60th anniversary on Star Trek Day on Sept. 8, 2026.

The 60th celebrations will begin in January 2026, featuring notable partnerships, new launches and memorable moments throughout the year. On September 8, 1966, Star Trek debuted for the first time on television with “The Man Trap,” the pilot episode of “Star Trek: The Original Series“, introducing the world to Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and their crewmates as they explored the galaxy on the starship USS Enterprise. Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into various films, television series, video games, novels, and comic books, becoming one of the most recognizable and highest-grossing media franchises of all time. The franchise began with Star Trek: The Original Series, which debuted in the US on September 8, 1966, and aired for three seasons on NBC. It was first broadcast on September 6, 1966, on Canada’s CTV network. It followed the voyages of the crew of the USS Enterprise, a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century, on a mission “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before”. In creating Star Trek, Roddenberry was inspired by C. S. Forester‘s Horatio Hornblower series of novels, Jonathan Swift‘s 1726 novel Gulliver’s Travels, the 1956 film Forbidden Planet, and television westerns such as Wagon Train.

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Star Trek Boldly Goes into its 60th Year with Fan-Centric Anniversary Celebrations Throughout 2026