The launch of the actress' ashes into deep space is set for later this year.
The late great Nichelle Nichols, an actress from Illinois who was best known for her portrayal of Nyota Uhura in the "Star Trek" film series, will be memorialized in a unique, out-of-this world way. The ashes of the actress, who passed away on July 30th at the age of 89, will be sent to deep space aboard a Vulcan rocket together with those of other "Star Trek" veterans.
Nichols' role in a massive film franchise such as "Star Trek" helped her break down racial stereotypes and push for more roles for Black actors in the midst of the US Civil Rights movement, Reuters reported. The actress, who was born on December 28, 1932, is credited as one of the first Black women to portray an empowered character on network television.
'Star Trek' Actress' Contributions Beyond Television
Beyond acting, Nichols also established Women in Motion, a recruitment agency that is contracted by NASA, the New York Post reported. The program proved to be a success, as it would eventually recruit some of the most prominent female figures in NASA's history.
Nichols' Women in Motion recruited Dr. Sally Ride, who would become the first American female astronaut, and Dr. Judith Resnik, who flew a number of successful missions before her life was cut short during the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986. Nichols also got her personal experience flying to space, as she was one of the several people on board NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Boeing 747SP, which spent eight hours at high altitude to study Mars and Saturn in 2015.
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Nichols now joins several other space enthusiasts in an upcoming voyage around the sun. Her ashes were donated by her son, Kyle Johnson, after she passed in July from heart failure.
Nichol's ashes will be placed onboard the Vulcan rocket, which is currently under development in a mission called "Enterprise Flight" that is organized by a memorial spaceflight company called Celestis. As the Vulcan rocket's development is still ongoing, the specific launch date of Nichols' ashes is yet unknown, The Verge reported.
The "Star Trek" actress' ashes will be joined by the remains of the franchise's creator Gene Roddenberry and his wife, Majel Barrett, who also appeared in the series as nurse Christine Chapel. The late actor James Doohan, who portrayed the Enterprise's engineer, Scotty, and the visual effects artist Douglas Trumbull, who worked on "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," "Blade Runner," and more, will also be taken on board the Vulcan rocket in a journey around the sun.
The Vulcan rocket is set to take off from Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida, and will bring with it more than 200 capsules containing ashes, DNA samples, and names, messages, and pictures collected from all over the world. These capsules will be stored in the rocket's upper stage, which will then travel about 150 million to 300 million kilometers into deep space and orbit the sun.
