Out of this World

To help inspire us in the pursuit of knowledge and progress, International Space Day is celebrated on the first Friday of May. In more recent years, a variant of this, “May the Fourth be with you” (May 4^th), a nod to the Star Wars quote “May The Force be with you” has become popular with audiences on the internet.

With our regimental museum collection, it may be difficult to imagine that the museum cares for anything of any relevance to the cosmos.  

However, we have this star object.

In February 2000 this regimental plaque was taken on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour during the crew’s mission into space. The group photograph, which you can see below, shows the crew in zero gravity inside Endeavour with the plaque floating in front of them. It was later presented to the museum by members of the crew and NASA when they visited. The accompanying small plaque reads “Commemorating the proud heritage and traditions of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders”.

How did this plague end up in space? The Regimental Secretary at the time hosted a group from NASA and this led to a friendship. As a token of this friendship, the plague was taken into space.

Written by Caitlin Meldrum, Museum Assistant