The first model of the USS Enterprise is displayed at Heritage Auctions in Los Angeles, April 13, 2024. The model — used in the original “Star Trek” television series — has been returned to Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, the son of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry, decades after it went missing in the 1970s.
“This is not going home to adorn my shelves,” Roddenberry said. “This is going to get restored and we’re working on ways to get it out so the public can see it and my hope is that it will land in a museum somewhere.” This USS Enterprise model would easily sell for more than $1 million at auction, but really “it’s priceless,” Maddalena said.
“I don’t think I really, fully comprehended at first that this was the first Enterprise ever created,” he said.