US Space Force explains how its logo doesn’t rip off Star Trek

Space Force, a new branch of the US military dealing with the final frontier, revealed its logo earlier this year, and pretty much immediately people started comparing it to the Starfleet logo from Star Trek. And after looking at it for half a second, you’ll see why:

Now, Space Force has released a pretty thorough diagram explaining exactly where it got the inspiration for its ideas, probably in the hope that people from the other military branches will stop flashing them the Vulcan salute whenever they pass in the hallways:

Why does the Space Force logo look the way it does? Let us count the ways:

1. As Space Force points out on its Twitter, “The delta was first used in space organizations as early as 1961 and has inspired generations of space professionals.” Star Trek: The Original Series didn’t debut until 1966.
2. The star in the middle is Polaris, the North Star, “which symbolizes how the core values guide the Space Force mission.”
3. The “four beveled elements” (which I think means the pointy bits near the bottom) represent the branches of the armed forces that support the Space Force in its mission: the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines.
4. Meanwhile, the pointy bits at the top represent a rocket launch.
5. Finally, the silver border “defense and protection from all adversaries and threats emenating from the space domain.” And the black border inside that is outer space itself.

Oh, no! They let outer space in! Abandon ship!

And that’s why the Space Force logo looks the way it does? Can we all stop making Star Trek puns whenever we see it now, guys? Can we?

Make it so.

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