The 501st Legion, otherwise called Vader’s First, is a worldwide group of fans who make and wear the costumes of the villains in Star Wars. Well, it now appears that they’ve made their mark on space and a photo has come out in the open to demonstrate it.
As it is, when the Soyuz MS-02 rocket took off to circle and dock with the International Space Station on 20th October a year ago, it carried three individuals from the Expedition 49 team (they were cosmonauts officer Sergey Nikolayevich Ryzhikov and flight engineers Andrei Borisenko and American space explorer Robert S Kimbrough) along with a very different cargo.
Voyaging 118 kilometers in a span of 173 days and finishing 2768 orbits of planet Earth, this cargo was important to the mission itself, as well as to Star Wars fans over the globe. As indicated by the 501st Legion Russian Outpost Facebook page, Borisenko took the above photo of a patch. The patch being referred to was designed by the 501st Legion Russian Outpost, which covers the Russian Federation and 19 of its members.
The 501st is spread over the planet, from the littlest army the 27 in number Czech Garrison to the biggest, the 739 in number German Garrison. Furthermore, there are 11,453 individuals around the world, and in 2016 they raised about £694,000 for an assortment of charities around the world. The 502-in number UK Garrison logged 42,000 work hours of community service and raised over £31,000, the biggest contribution in Europe.
It’s not the first time that a Star Wars-related thing has gone into space. Overlooking Ronald Reagan’s notorious Star Wars strategic defense initiative, in 2007 Luke Skywalker’s unique lightsaber from Return Of The Jedi traveled north and into space on the Space Shuttle, STS-120.
Propelling from the Kennedy Space Center on 23rd October 2007 the shuttle circled Earth 238 times amid its 15-day mission. Day 12 had the principle Star Wars theme blast out for the day’s reminder and the lightsaber stored securely for the length of the mission before being shown at Houston Space Center.
With the arrival of the adventure to worldwide fame it can’t be long before an item from the new series of movies advances into space.
Possibly the International Space Station will one day brag Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, or the dice from the Millennium Falcon
