The official logo of Starfleet Academy, circa 2375.

In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet Academy is where the future members of Starfleet are trained. It was created in the year 2161, when the United Federation of Planets was founded. The Academy's motto is "Ex astris, scientia" - "from the stars, knowledge". This is a paraphrase of the Apollo 13 motto "Ex luna scientia," - "From the moon, knowledge." In turn, the Apollo 13 motto was a paraphrase of "Ex scientia tridens," the motto of the United States Naval Academy, meaning "From knowledge, seapower."

The main campus of the Academy is located near Starfleet headquarters on Earth, on the Presidio in San Francisco, California, although there are other campuses. Tom Paris studied at a campus in Marseille, France.

The Japanese Garden, located on the grounds of the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys, California, over 300 miles away, was used to film the main San Francisco campus (pictured). Images of the Golden Gate Bridge were superimposed to make the location appear as if it were actually in San Francisco.

The main campus of Starfleet Academy, circa 2375

The groundskeeper of the Academy is a man called Boothby, a character played by Ray Walston who is first featured in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The First Duty." Boothby has offered advice to, and taken interest in the careers of many students, including Jean-Luc Picard and Kathryn Janeway, both later captains.

For non-Federation citizens, a letter of recommendation from a command-level officer in Starfleet is required before they can take the Starfleet entrance examination. Commander Benjamin Sisko wrote such a letter for Nog in 2371 when he applied for Starfleet in the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Heart of Stone." (Nog's time at the Academy is seen in the Starfleet Academy comic book series, where he's a main character.)

In the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise, the "Academy" is mentioned by Commander Tucker in the pilot "Broken Bow" (which takes place in 2151), but it is not established whether this refers to Starfleet Academy or some other service academy. (Another episode of the series made it clear that West Point is still in operation, so Tucker going to another "academy" is certainly possible.) If Tucker was referring to Starfleet Academy, then its founding must have been well before 2151; consequently this would be a retcon unless the founding dates are reconciled.

In 1995, a computer game with a story surrounding the Academy, called "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy", was released by Interplay and High Voltage Software.

A television series based on Starfleet Academy was proposed, but never produced. An early draft of the script to Star Trek VI featured a flashback to Capt. Kirk's time at the academy. According to producer Harve Bennett, that version of the sixth film got as far as preliminary casting, allegedly with offers made to Ethan Hawke for the role of Captain Kirk and John Cusack as Spock.

Starfleet Medical Academy

Starfleet Medical Academy is responsible for training Starfleet Medical personnel. It accepts only 200 students each year. It is one of several sub-campuses in the Academy system.

In other works

Ex Astris Scientia has been adopted by Bernd Schneider as the title of his fanon website dedicated to information on the Star Trek fictional universe.

External links

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