Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols’ ashes headed for solar orbit
- Nichols has been added to the passenger manifest of a spaceship due to carry vials containing cremated ashes and DNA samples from departed space enthusiasts
- Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, died on July 30. The memorial flight will be aboard a Vulcan Centaur rocket, still under development
The late actress Nichelle Nichols, best known as Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek, will become the latest member of the 1960s television series to be memorialised by having some of her earthly remains flown into space.
Nichols, who died on July 30 at 89, is credited with helping shatter racial stereotypes and redefining Hollywood roles for black actors at the height of the US Civil Rights movement, as one of the first black women to portray an empowered character on network television.
Now she has been added to the posthumous passenger manifest of a real-life spaceship due to carry a collection of vials containing cremated ashes and DNA samples from dozens of departed space enthusiasts on a final, and eternal voyage around the sun, according to organisers of the tribute.
A date for the launch has not yet been set.
Other Star Trek cast members and executives who have had remains launched into space include James Doohan, who played the show’s chief engineer Scotty, and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
Also joining the launch will be the remains of Roddenberry’s wife, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who played nurse Christine Chapel on the series, and the renowned sci-fi visual effects artist Douglas Trumbull, whose work was featured in such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.