United States of America

A terrestrial sovereign nation-state whose symbols (the American flag and a fifty-two-star configuration) supply provenance for a preserved spacesuit and its occupant, identifying military rank and cultural origin. Within the episode the United States functions as a historical and cultural referent—an origin point for the deceased colonel, a source of military affiliation and civic identity, and a mnemonic anchor tying 283 years of preservation to a specific human polity and its symbolic emblems.