Astronaut gives a heart-warming send off to Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy

spock live long and prosper

Screengrab Leonard Nimoy, famous for his role as Spock — the infallibly logical character in the Star Trek TV series and movies — died on February 27, and astronaut Terry Virts gave the beloved actor the perfect send off.

Virts has been living on board the International Space Station since September, 2014 and he snapped a photo of himself giving a Vulcan salute when the ISS passed over Boston — the city in which Nimoy was born.

The Vulcans are a race in Star Trek that Spock's father belonged to. Nimoy himself actually came up with the idea for the Vulcan salute, and its become the most iconic symbol of the show. The salute means "Live long and prosper."

Virts took this photo from the largest window on the ISS called the cupola:

Star Trek originally aired in the 1960s just a few years before NASA put Neil Armstrong on the moon. Ever since then, Star Trek has been inspiring people to pursue science and space exploration with it's famous message that space is the "final frontier."

Nimoy received a public outreach award in 2010 from the Space Foundation for his role as Spock.

NASA gave its own tribute to Nimoy when the organization tweeted a photo from 1976 that showed the space shuttle Enterprise, named after the famous starship from Star Trek.

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