Star Wars Fan Patch Travels into Space

501st Legion pic

501st Legion
Image: 501st.com

An endodontist and implantologist with over two decades of experience, Dr. Jeffrey Etess is a specialist associate at various dental offices throughout New York. When he isn’t performing dental surgery on patients, Dr. Jeffrey Etess enjoys watching science fiction films, and he includes Star Wars among his favorites.

Events in the Star Wars franchise take place in a distant galaxy, and a patch representing a group of fans of the film series recently made its way outside of Earth to the International Space Station. The 501st Legion is a group of Star Wars fans with outposts throughout the world in which members design and wear costumes of the franchise’s villains. The group has 11,453 members worldwide who raise money for local charities. On October 20, 2017, a patch designed by part of the group’s Russian outpost was carried to the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft. The cargo went on to complete 2,768 orbits of Earth over 173 days.

It was the second Star Wars-related item to go into space in the past decade. In 2007, the lightsaber used by Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi was brought on board the Space Shuttle STS-120 during its 15-day mission.