bill: enterprise was the first space orbitor, never used in space. it was used to test critical stages of landing and shuttle preparation. enterprise was originally named constitution, in honor of our bicentennial in 1976, but viewers of the popular tv science fix show star trek, they started a write in campaign, pam, you way be aware of this urging the white house to choose another name. and the name they came up with is enterprise. yes i m very well aware of that being a trekie myself. bill: that had to be an honor as a fan ever the show. yes, i think it was perfect. thisthe people of the united states. that with us a very popular program that interest duesed a lot oinduced a lot of people to
the crowd. many people who knew star trek know him as spock. he is here to welcome that. it looks like actually he s walking over to us right now. jonathan, our producer is bringing him over. well, hello. live television. welcome. how are you? reporter: ladies and gentlemen, leonard nimoy, right here at jfk. what an exciting day this is. tell us about your participation, why you re here, who asked you to be here? this is a reunion for me. we the star trek cast were actually rolled out when the enterprise first came out of its hangar in 1976. i haven t seen the ship since then. reporter: is that right? so we re revisiting. it was a great day. the ship was originally named constitution, and star trek fans started a letter writing campaign to president ford, he was president at the time. he got enough letters that he was convinced that the ship should be called enterprise named after the starship