Leonard Nimoy's death this week hasn't just hit the entertainment world and Verge staffers hard. NASA astronaut Terry Virts tweeted a simple Spock tribute yesterday while aboard the International Space Station.

Virts' Vulcan salute is a symbol of Star Trek's lasting influence on space exploration.

"Leonard Nimoy was an inspiration to multiple generations of engineers, scientists, astronauts, and other space explorers," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. "As Mr. Spock, he made science and technology important to the story, while never failing to show, by example, that it is the people around us who matter most."