The Space Force (the military branch, not the Netflix show) has unveiled its official logo, which like its official seal, appears to be an homage to the United Federation of Planets or the now-defunct Pontiac.
“Our logo is the Delta with an embedded North Star to serve as our guiding light as we build a new service to secure the space domain,” Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett wrote in a July 22 memo that was posted on the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page.
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To accompany the new logo, The Space Force also has an official motto: “Sempra Supra;” which translates as “Always Above,” Barrett wrote.
In January, the service branch unveiled its official seal, which is used for official correspondence and other internal communications, said Space Force spokeswoman Lynn Kirby.
More than one casual observer noticed that the triangle – or delta – bore a striking resemblance to the shape of the Starfleet Command insignia in “Star Trek.”
In fact, George Takei, who played Capt. Sulu in the original series, wrote in the Washington Post that the Space Force seal actually evoked the dystopian version of humanity represented by the Terran Empire – a parallel universe in which Earth is the center of an interstellar fascist regime.
But Kirby explained that the triangle of power – a term coined and trademarked by Task & Purpose – at the heart of the Space Force logo is steeped in Air Force history.
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“The delta symbol, the central design element in the logo, was first used as early as 1942 by the U.S. Army Air Forces; and was used in early Air Force space organization emblems dating back to 1961,” Kirby said. Since then, the delta symbol has been a prominent feature in military space community emblems.
“The U.S. Space Force motto, ‘Semper Supra’ (Always Above), represents the service’s role in establishing, maintaining, and preserving U.S. freedom of operations in the space domain,” she continued. “The motto captures the U.S. Space Force’s enduring commitment to safeguarding the advantages of the ultimate high ground.”
Got it. But it is worth noting that the logo still looks a lot like a Pontiac insignia upside down.
For those of you too young to remember what a Pontiac looked like: Remember the scene in “Billy Madison” in which Adam Sandler sits on the hood of a car while blasting “The Stroke” by Billy Squier? That was a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.
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