Nichelle Nichols: ‘Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura To Embark On NASA Mission


Nichelle Nichols, known for her character Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek series, recently revealed during a Reddit AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) session that she would be embarking on a NASA mission come September.

The 82-year-old actress, who has served as an ambassador for NASA since playing her iconic character in the 1960s, will be taking her seat on the SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) space telescope when it takes off this fall, the Mirror reports.

The telescope is currently housed in a specially-converted Boeing 747, and is able to fly as high as the stratosphere, around 50,000 feet above the Earth. Surprisingly, this is not the first time Nichols has been aboard a space telescope. In the 1970s, she had the amazing opportunity to fly on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, the first generation Airport Observatory.

“SOFIA does not, sadly, fly into space. It’s an airborne observatory, a massive telescope mounted inside a 747 flying as high as is possible. I was on a similar flight, the first airborn observatory, back in 1977,” she said in response to one of her fan’s questions on Thursday, July 30. “It’s an amazing experience, you get a totally different perspective than from earth. I do hope someone gets some great pictures.”

On Friday, Nichelle Nichols offered a more detailed description of the NASA mission she will be participating in in a blog post on Starpower.

“I teased at something on my Reddit Ask Me Anything yesterday that I’d love to share with you all. I am honored to say that I will be among the first non-essential personnel to experience NASA’s newest telescope: SOFIA. On September 15th, I’ll board a special 747 with a very specially built telescope integrated into the fuselage, taking off at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center near Palmdale, California.

SOFIA is actually a second generation Airport Observatory. The first generation was the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, flown in the mid 1970s, which I also had the honor being able to fly on, and even operate the equipment!

I would love to share this event with my fans through live sharing here on StarPower, a special for my VIP fans supporting the great causes that help make these kinds of historical events happen. I’m working with NASA to see what’s possible.”

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Nichols announcement comes just months after she suffered a mild stroke, which resulted in hospitalization.

Nichols started playing the role of Lt. Uhura, Head of Communications for the USS Enterprise, in 1966, and carried on her role for 25 years. Her last appearance as Uhura came in the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, in which she had been promoted to commander. During her time on the show, she was also credited with the world’s first interracial kiss with her co-star, William Shatner.

[Photo by Cindy Ord / Getty Images]

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