Nichelle Nichols will become the last member of the original Star Trek TV series to be commemorated by flying some of his remains into deep space.
Nichols, who was best known for his role on the show in the 1960s as Lt. Nyota Uhura and helped break racial stereotypes at the height of the civil rights movement, he died in July at the age of 89.
Now, it has been added to a memorial flight in a spaceship due to the transport of cremated ashes and DNA samples of deceased space enthusiasts on a final and eternal journey around the sun, according to the organizers of the tribute.
Pic: Jens Krick / Geisler-Fotopress / picture-alliance / dpa / AP
The star’s son, Kyle Johnson, described it as “a wonderful memorial to her, everlasting.”
A launch date has not yet been set.
Nichols won’t be the first Star Trek hero whose remains have been thrown into space, with other cast members and executives including James Doohan, who played the show’s chief engineer Scotty, and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. who also embarked on the journey.
Her death brought a flood of tributes to the African American actress whose interracial on-screen kiss with co-star William Shatner was unknown at the time.
Like other original cast members, Nichols has also appeared in six big-screen spinoffs starting in 1979 with Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Fan Conventions.
She also served as a NASA recruiter for many years, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps.
Also the remains of Roddenberry’s wife, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who played nurse Christine Chapel in the series, and famed sci-fi visual effects artist Douglas Trumbull, whose work has appeared in films such as Star Trek: The Motion Picture. , will join the launch.
The launch is organized by Texas-based company Celestis Inc, which offers a measure of cosmic immortality to customers who can afford a dramatic greeting.
More than 200 capsules carrying human remains and DNA are destined to enter the upper stage of the rocket which will fly into deep space – beyond the gravitational pull of the Earth and the moon – and eventually enter a perpetual solar orbit.
