It all started with a tweet. First William Shatner, forever known as Capt. James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, had a short Twitter conversation with fellow Canadian, and astronaut, Chris Hadfield. Hadfield is currently aboard the International Space Station and on Thursday a man who's now in space chatted with the one went to space centuries in the future.

The Twitter exchange between Shatner and Hadfield occurred in January and there were hopes that the actor would get in an actual conversation with the astronaut while he was in space aboard the ISS. Hadfield has been actively tweeting, sharing photos and observations as he serves as a flight engineer.

Since tweeting “Yes, Standard Orbit, Captain. And we're detecting signs of life on the surface,” a "Star Trek" reference, in response to Shatner’s question, “Are you tweeting from space? MBB,” the Canadian Space Agency has worked diligently to bring the two together. Over the course of 26 minutes Thursday, Shatner talked to Hadfield over the phone and the entire conservation was recorded. The live stream of the event occurred earlier on Thursday, but the CSA has uploaded the video to YouTube.

Speaking about his chat with Shatner, Hadfield tweeted, “Thanks to @WilliamShatner for the thoughtful, researched and insightful questions today. Looking forward to meeting in-person back on Earth!” Shatner asks some interesting questions while Hadfield provides some in-depth and knowledgeable responses. It’s interesting to see Hadfield floating in zero gravity as he answers Shatner’s questions and they both took the opportunity for a serious discussion. They touch on a future Mars mission, life as an astronaut, and "Star Trek."

You can watch the discussion between William Shatner and Chris Hadfield below.

Twitter Space Video