Sam Amico
Late actress Nichelle Nichols is headed where no ashes have gone before.
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Nichols portrayed Lt. Uhura on TV’s original Star Trek and died in July at the age of 89. A portion of her ashes will now be part of an upcoming mission to space. This is courtesy of memorial spaceflight company Celestis Inc.
The rocket carrying Nichols’ ashes is named Vulcan and will depart Cape Canaveral, Fla. It will leave the Earth-moon system later this year. A sample of her DNA will also make the journey on the appropriately named Enterprise Flight.
“DNA from Nichols’s adult son, actor Kyle Johnson, will make the trip, too. In fact, more than 200 flight capsules with ashes, DNA and messages from loved ones will be included on the flight, which will launch atop the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan,” noted Yahoo News.
Nichelle Nichols’ Legacy
The Celestis website is accepting tributes from fans on their page celebrating Nichols. Some of those tributes will be sent along, digitally, as cargo on the voyage.
Along with being a pioneer in TV series acting for minority women, Nichols worked with NASA. She made it a point to encourage women and minorities to apply for jobs there.
As one of the first black women to star in a major TV show, Nichols gained the notice of Martin Luther King Jr. She actually intended to leave Star Trek to become a stage actress following the show’s first season in 1966, but King talked her out of it.
“He told me that he was my biggest fan,” Nichols recalled in the 2018 documentary From the Bridge. “And he asked me to please stay on the show — that I was a role model to Black children and women all across America … He told me that I couldn’t leave: that I was part of history.”
