Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff Reacts After Real-Life Astronaut Dresses Up As Starbuck On The ISS

While the majority of well-known sci-fi characters might not translate super-accurately if they transitioned to real life, including Battlestar Galactica’s fan-beloved Captain Starbuck, the character played by Katee Sackhoff actually DID make it to space in our reality. At least, sort of. Not long after Sackhoff was thrilled to see another one of her characters referenced on Jeopardy, she got to witness a legitimate astronaut dressing up as her iconic Battlestar Galactica character while on board the International Space Station.

Katee Sackhoff left the role of Captain Starbuck behind more than ten years ago, and has moved on to other sci-fi endeavors, but fans will forever be lovingly stuck on her iconic Battlestar Galactica character. Such admirers apparently include astronaut and space-farer Samantha Cristoforetti, as the space station visitor donned a Starbuck costume in a recent transmission to planet Earth. Sackhoff was clearly thrilled enough to drop a “frak” over the tribute to sci-fi badass, and retweeted the video of Samatha Cristoforetti's Starbuck while expressing how awesome it really is. 

You can see the video along with Sackhoff’s response in her Twitter post below:

As you can see from the video, this is not the first time astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has shown off her pop culture prowess by dressing as a fictional space voyager while miles above the Earth. A few years ago, she sent out a transmission while dressed as Star Trek’s Captain Kirk — William Shatner technically did go to space as well, though not in costume — and I cannot get over her dedication to sending thrills to fellow sci-fi lovers from such a specifically suitable setting.

It is a whole different kind of fan dedication than the norm, too. Just think about it: Samantha Cristoforetti obviously can’t just drop by a costume shop or order these costumes from Amazon. (Though Jeff Bezos does probably have the means to ship things to the ISS.) She has to think far enough ahead to bring those kinds of getups with her when she is gearing up to go to space. Not to mention the fact that astronauts can only take limited luggage and supplies with them, for weight-based reasons, so the costumes are technically taking up room that she could have used for other things that wouldn't necessarily catch Katee Sackhoff's attention.

Of course, I’d like to imagine that they aren’t just a one-off, and that the entirety of Samantha Cristoforetti's wardrobe is made up of sci-fi costumes that she casually dons while relaxing and working in the International Space Station. Even if she doesn’t, it really seems like she is living her best geeky life hundreds of miles above our heads. 

Now that Katee Sackhoff’s Captain Starbuck has actually gone to space, or at least as close as anyone could hope for, there are plenty of other of her sci-fi characters for Samantha Cristoforetti to choose from next time, Or maybe she already has a second Sackhoff costume in the space station. I’ve got to say, my vote is for Star Wars franchise’s Bo-Katan, which Sackhoff will continue to explore in Season 3 of The Mandalorian. 

While it might be a little less exciting that real-life space living, everyone with a Disney+ subscription will be able to catch Katee Sackhoff and the rest of The Mandalorian cast when Season 3 begins in February of next year, while we're still waiting on more updates from Peacock's impending BSG quasi-reboot.