The stays of actress and singer Nichelle Nichols might be launched into deep house later this yr, in accordance with firm Celestis.
Mark Ralston/AFP through Getty Photographs
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Mark Ralston/AFP through Getty Photographs
The stays of actress and singer Nichelle Nichols might be launched into deep house later this yr, in accordance with firm Celestis.
Mark Ralston/AFP through Getty Photographs
Greater than 5 a long time after the unique Star Trek sequence ended, its beloved communications officer will enterprise into the unknown for actual when Nichelle Nichols‘ ashes are launched into deep house later this yr.
Nichols, the trailblazing actress who performed Lt. Nyota Uhura within the authentic Star Trek sequence within the Sixties and in a number of of the franchise’s function movies, died at age 89 in July. She is remembered as one of many first Black ladies featured in a serious tv sequence, in addition to credited with inspiring ladies and other people of colour to affix NASA.
And now her symbolic journey past the stratosphere continues. United Launch Alliance — an American spacecraft launch supplier — introduced final week {that a} portion of Nichols’ ashes will journey to deep house aboard a Vulcan rocket with Celestis, a non-public firm that sends peoples’ cremated stays and DNA into house for memorial flights.
The primary Celestis Voyager Service is ready to launch later this yr and can bear the identify Enterprise Flight in honor of its passengers.
It is going to additionally carry the stays of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his spouse, actor Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, in addition to these of James Doohan, who performed Montgomery “Scotty” Scott within the sequence and movies.
“We’re more than happy to be fulfilling, with this mission, a promise I made to Majel Barrett Roddenberry in 1997 that sooner or later we might fly her and husband Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry collectively on a deep house memorial spaceflight,” Celestis Co-Founder and CEO Charles M. Chafer mentioned in a press launch.
The flight is slated to launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral and journey greater than 250 miles into deep house, past the Earth-moon system and NASA’s James Webb House Telescope, in what the corporate calls “a mission that’s first of its form.”
Keen contributors pays to ship their very own DNA or a portion of their family members’ cremated stays on the journey, with tickets beginning at $125,000. Availability is restricted, and reservations shut on Wednesday.
Followers can even be a part of from a distance by submitting a tribute message to Nichols on-line, which the corporate says might be despatched into house too. Beam ’em up, Scotty!