The Orville is heading into space...For real!

At the end of May, Richard Garner, Director of The Space Collective Ltd., tweeted the announcement that some flags from Seth MacFarlane’s hit Trek-alike show would be headed to the International Space Station. From the announcement:

“In September 2020, a very small handful of @TheOrville flags will launch into space aboard an Antares rocket, stored inside of a Grumman Cygnus spacecraft at the top of that rocket. Then, a few days after launch, the spacecraft will dock with the @Space_Station [...] where it will orbit Earth at 25 times the speed of sound over the course of 6 months.”

After the payload is done with its mission, it will be returned to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. “A small thank you,” Garner said, “to [producer] @TomCostantino & the team over at @TheOrville for the endless entertainment, we all need right now.”

If, at this point, you’re thinking to yourself, “Hey, I’d like to get in on that too!”, well, you might be in luck. While the Orville flags will not be for sale once they return to Earth, The Space Collective is offering you the chance to purchase a personalized item that will go up on the same payload. You can choose from a custom name patch, a variety of small flags, or a small NASA pin, all of which will be flown in space before being checked out and shipped to you. To find out more about that, visit thespacecollective.com.

The third season of The Orville was in the process of filming when Hollywood effectively shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s currently uncertain when production will pick back up again. Until we have a more definitive timeline for when The Orville season three will hit our small screens, you can catch up on all of seasons one and two, now streaming on Hulu.