How the Smithsonian Is Restoring the Original USS Enterprise Model

The USS Enterprise is, in popular imagination, a futuristic spaceship. The actual USS
Enterprise model used on the Star Trek show is, in reality, a 50-year-old creaker that has endured at least one misguided new paint job. The Smithsonian is hard at work restoring the model, though, and they've even got the National Zoo's vet techs involved.
In an interview with TrekCore, the Smithsonian's conservator Margaret Weitekamp dropped some fascinating hints about how the restoration is going. The model was donated to the Smithsonian five years after the show was canceled, and it had been on display at the Air and Space Museum. Earlier this year, they started to restore the sagging, stress-fractured model in earnest, boldly going where no conservator has gone before.