Outside the Beltway

The Space Force Logo

Boldy going where Starfleet has gone before.

Steven L. Taylor
23

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In regards to something that I know is trivial, Trump tweeted out the new U.S. Space Force logo yesterday:

The similarity to a certain other organization’s logo:

Now, granted, the new Space Force logo has clear elements from the existing Air Force Space Command logo (you know, the Space Force we already had):

Image result for space command logo

So sure, the existing logo has some of the elements of the new one, but one still has to wonder: can Paramount sue Space Force for copyright infringement?

(Yes, largely nonsense, but Space Force tends to live in the nonsense space. Also, this is Star Trek: Picard week, so a Trek post is on theme. Picard was great, BTW).

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23 responses to “The Space Force Logo”

  1. de stijl Avatar
    de stijl

    Had Obama proposed this design … Good lordy, imagine the foofaraw!

    Why are we talking Space Force btw? There are no guys or gals *in* the so-called Space Force. It’s just miltary, weather, or commercial communication satellites for the most part.

    Space Force is an aspirational goal if you are a nerdy minded 8 year old.

    Unless you want to slap a new logo on American ISS astronauts, Space Force is metal and wire mostly launched before dude was even elected.

    Douche. Space douche. Trump fucked up space too. Awesome!

    Republicans, we need to chat. You can’t elect fantastically idiotic Presidents anymore.

    1
  2. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    They should have gone with the Spaceship and Sun of the Galactic empire in the Foundation saga. True, it wasn’t, quite a fascist dictatorship, but they were the bad guys in a few stories.

    Here’s an image

    3
  3. de stijl Avatar
    de stijl

    As the goon said to the minion:

    “Are we the baddies?”

  4. de stijl Avatar
    de stijl

    @Kathy:

    You are such a nerd. Love it.

    1
  5. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    The Star Trek design reportedly dates from 1996, not 1966 so the provenance may be reversed.

    I can’t find the link right now, but the new Space Force emblem purposely combines major elements of the Space Command emblem (the globe and delta v) and the NASA emblem (the chosen star clusters and the orbit).

    1
  6. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Andy: I know it isn’t from the 1966 era. And I can certainly see that there has been some synergy on some of these logos (the UFP logo is clearly a redux of the UN, for example).

    But seriously: the Space Force idea has far more style elements from the 96 SF logo than the SF logo has than of any of the other specific examples.

    (And, again, I know this is not important.)

    1
  7. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    Supposedly the Air Force Air Education and Training Command designed the logo, here is where they say they got the elements from (warning, Facebook link).

    (And, again, I know this is not important.)

    No, it’s not, but it sure is fun!

    2
  8. Michael Reynolds Avatar
    Michael Reynolds

    Well, the last ‘creative’ willing to work for them is Scott Adams, and you see what you get.

    7
  9. de stijl Avatar
    de stijl

    I do like the new Star Trek movies.

    Chris Pine is fine, Zachary Quinto is excellent, Zoe Saldana is so underutilized. Karl Urban being annoyed.

    I’m not trying to rev people up here, this is just my opinion, but I find them more appealing than the new Star Wars movies.

    I like Daisy Ridley; she is quite good, actually, but the movies kinda bore me. Sorry. Daisy is definitely the best of the lot. Adam Driver really works in his role too. When did that guy get this shot? I saw him on Girls.

    I prefer the Star Trek movies as movies, but the Star Wars movies have arguably better actors, but with worse dialog scenes. I do like Daisy Ridley, she’s really good.

    3
  10. Kylopod Avatar
    Kylopod

    @de stijl:

    Had Obama proposed this design … Good lordy, imagine the foofaraw!

    Well he did say “Jedi mind meld,” so there’s that.

    (Anyone think he was deliberately trolling the geeks when he said that? It’s occurred to me. It reminded me of the time my karate instructor as a teen once used the quote “May the force be with you” and attributed it to Spaceballs.)

    1
  11. An Interested Party Avatar
    An Interested Party

    This administration (with Ben Carson providing much comic relief) has a lot more in common with Spaceballs than it does with either Star Trek or Star Wars…

    2
  12. de stijl Avatar
    de stijl

    @Kylopod:

    Spaceballs was horrible except for Rick Moranis (great name!) and the giant Darth Vader helmet.

    1
  13. Kylopod Avatar
    Kylopod

    @An Interested Party: I made this meme a while back.

  14. de stijl Avatar
    de stijl

    @Kylopod:

    Mel Brooks grasping at straws. It was kinda embarrassing.

    I didn’t ask for my money back (as if I could! Way too much internal anxiety for fruitless confrontation), it was as I expected.

  15. David C Fowler Avatar
    David C Fowler

    The first use was by the 36th Fighter Group of the Army Air Forces in their emblem approved in June 1940. Roddenberry served in the USAAF in that era, so it is likely that he had at least some familiarity with it.

    The delta was a common design element in Air Force space and flight test organizations, going back to the early 1960s…so yes, all of this pre-dates Star Trek.

    2
  16. OzarkHillbilly Avatar
    OzarkHillbilly

    You spelled “Farce” wrong, Steven.

  17. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @David C Fowler: It’s not the delta that gets me, as I recognize that it predates Trek.

    It is the overall presentation. There is no way that the person that did this didn’t copy the 96 Starfleet logo.

    One thing is for sure: if the Space Force logo was the new “Lost in Space” logo, Paramount’s lawyers would be calling.

    2
  18. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    @David C Fowler: @Steven L. Taylor: There’s an interesting if weird discourse on the Starfleet logos from TOS here. It seeks, but perhaps doesn’t succeed, in demonstrating that they were more consistent than fans believe.

    It’s clear that Roddenberry and his design team were partly influenced by NASA and Air Force logos. But it’s obvious, too, that NASA and later Space Command have been influenced by Trek, too. There’s a reason the first Space Shuttle was named “Enterprise,” after all.

    2
  19. Tyrell Avatar
    Tyrell

    This fits right in with the news of the successful testing of an EM drive engine. This engine will get people to the moon in four hours and Mars in a matter of weeks. “Warp drive!”

  20. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    @James Joyner:

    There’s a reason the first Space Shuttle was named “Enterprise,” after all.

    One of the first ships in the Continental Navy in 1775 was named Enterprise and it’s been on many ships since. Maybe the Space Shuttle was named after the Star Trek Enterprise, but Star Trek used it because it’s perhaps the most popular and long-stand US ship name.

  21. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    @Andy:

    Oh, that gets very meta 🙂

    The shuttle was named Enterprise because of a great deal of pressure by Trek fans in the early 70s. the ship on the show was probably named after the many USN ships with that name, perhaps for the 60s aircraft carrier, which was the first nuclear powered carrier.

    Now the meta. In the first Trek movie, there is a photo mural of previous ships named Enterprise. One is the shuttle, another the carrier. In the fourth movie, the crew travel back in time, and at one point require a nuclear reactor to collect some particles from it. They wind up using the reactor of the carrier Enterprise.

    3
  22. Michael Reynolds Avatar
    Michael Reynolds

    @de stijl:
    Mitchell and Webb. Love those guys. Love David Mitchell in particular for framing my approach to clothing: “My appearance should be in no way noteworthy, but then again, not so un-noteworthy as to be in itself, noteworthy.” . Words to live by for a guy with a closet entirely filled with Eddie Bauer black t-shirts, Ralph Lauren blue jeans and Merrill sneakers.

    2
  23. Matt Avatar
    Matt

    @Tyrell: The “EM drive” as you call it has a proper name “RF resonant cavity thruster” and while in a couple tests it seemed to produce thrust it was actually outside interference.
    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/05/nasa-emdrive-impossible-physics-independent-tests-magnetic-space-science/
    https://www.space.com/40682-em-drive-impossible-space-thruster-test.html

    Even if it did produce thrust it’s still less than what an ion drive is capable of and won’t get you to the moon/mars at “warp speed”….

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