American actress Nichelle Nichols was best known for her role as Lieutenant Uhura in the famed science fiction series Star Trek. On July 30, 2022, he died at the age of 89 due to natural causes.
Now, the late Star Trek legend will reach the last frontier, just as the science fiction series prayed. The ashes and DNA of the iconic actress will be flown into space on a special “business mission.” Her remains will be sent ‘beyond the moon’ and she will not be alone; the ashes and DNA of other Star Trek pioneers will join her, including James Doohan (Scotty), Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Nurse Chapel), sci-fi TV series creator Gene Roddenberry and visual effects wizard Douglas Trumbull.
What mission will carry his remains into space?
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur mission is scheduled to deliver a robotic lunar lander no earlier than December to explore NASA’s future Artemis flights to the Moon and dump ash and DNA samples deeper into the solar system. .
The commemorative mission is being organized by the Houston-based company Celestis, which is the first company to have successfully performed commemorative spaceflight missions.
Star Trek co-star William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk on the series, shared an iconic 1968 on-screen kiss with Nichols, during the original series’ third season, which has since been regarded as one of the first interracial kisses broadcast on television. The kiss happened just a year after the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage.
