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Nichelle Nichols will rest among the stars when his ashes are launched into deep space later this year on a corporate flight with some of his fallen “Star Trek” colleagues.
Nichols, who was known for playing the iconic Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in all three seasons of the original show from 1966 to 1969, died on July 30. She was 89 years old. Thursday, September 8 marks the 56th anniversary of the series’ first episode and is now known as “Star Trek Day.”
Her son, Kyle Johnson, exclusively told Fox News Digital that his mother was “in pretty good health” before her death, and that he “expected her to be here a little longer,” so his sudden death threw him into a bit of a turmoil.
Nichols boldly went where few had gone before and broke down barriers for black women in Hollywood, and she was an incredible advocate for spaceflight programs as NASA’s chief recruiter.
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“Star Trek” legend Nichelle Nichols will make one last historic flight aboard the Enterprise as her ashes are launched into deep space.
(Getty Images)
“As I was thinking about it following arrangements and so on, which would basically be a service of very close family and friends,” Johnson said. “But there’s also her biggest fan base, of supporters, those she touched and inspired. I was trying to think of what might be an appropriate way to acknowledge that.”
He recalled an interesting phone call from a scientist that was like a “blue room thunderbolt” and an opportunity he knew his mother wouldn’t want to miss.
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Charles Chafer, CEO and co-founder of Celestis Inc., offered to honor Nichols in the most unique way by including his remains in a memorial. space flight mission aboard the Enterprise flight.
Johnson said the simple opportunity is “a great honor” for her late pioneer mother.
“They will include some of his remains to go on a mission as well as his DNA with mine, which I really appreciate,” he said. “I thought there would be no more appropriate and lasting tribute than this mission.”
Kyle Johnson has often attended “Star Trek” conventions with his mother Nichelle Nichols (seen in 2019). He said his last deep space mission would be a real honor.
(Gabe Ginsberg)
“I thought there would be no more appropriate and lasting tribute than this mission.”
Launched later this year aboard United Launch Alliance’s aptly named Vulcan rocket, Nichols’ remains will also be included along with late “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991, and his late wife and “First Lady of ‘Star Trek'” Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who died in 2008.
The cremated remains of the late ‘Star Trek’ actor James Doohan, who played Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott and died in 2005, and visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull, who died in February, will also be included in the mission to mark the unique “Star Flight Return “Trek”.
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Celestis has completed 18 memorial spaceflights to date and has five more in the pipeline.
They have since sent nearly “1,500 people into space”, which Chafer says is “more than all governments combined”.
Each flight is a unique experience and the company offers seven different destinations. The “Earth Rise” suborbital mission launches a flight capsule with cremated remains and DNA into space before returning to planet Earth by parachute.
Nichelle Nichols (as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura) and William Shatner (as Captain James T. Kirk) are shown in a scene from “The Man Trap,” the first episode of “Star Trek” which aired September 8, 1966.
(CBS Photo Archive)
Another proposed option allows a capsule to orbit the Earth on satellites or rockets that can rotate for up to 200 years, and depending on the altitude of the mission, they can reenter the Earth’s atmosphere like a star. spinning.
Celestis even offers flights to the moon.
“We first went to moon at NASA asks with their eminent scientist, Dr. Eugene Shoemaker. This theft took place in 1999,” Chafer said. To this day, Shoemaker remains the only person buried on the moon, a mission led by the Lunar Prospector in honor of Shoemaker’s contributions to planetary science.
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“It’s been a while, but our second mission will be this year, and we’ll put 90 people on the surface of the moon as a memorial where people can go out at night, look at the moon and say, ‘Hey Pops!'”
Nichols and some of his fallen ‘Star Trek’ colleagues will be part of the first deep space mission, to be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, later this year and in an “eternal orbit around the sun, approximately 300 million kilometers from Earth”. Chafer noted that his place among the stars is “an endless journey”.
Clockwise from top left: Nichelle Nichols, DeForest Kelley, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy in the TV series ‘Star Trek’ circa 1969.
(CBS Photo Archive)
“It’s been a while, but our second mission will be this year, and we’ll put 90 people on the surface of the moon as a memorial where people can go out at night, look at the moon and say, ‘Hey Pops!'”
An important part of Nichols’ journey was to include her fans in memorial efforts and to ensure that the people who have always been a guiding force in her career also have the chance to stay with her forever.
Fans around the world can submit their names, tributes, drawings and images for inclusion in the mission with Nichols for free via Celestis MindFiles, which will be digitized and sent aboard the Enterprise Flight.
Chafer added that for each space mission, Celestis donates to two charities that “embodied the commitment to space exploration and preservation of the planet.”
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Johnson, who shares as much passion for interplanetary science as her mother, explained how Nichols was invested in science and education for the future.
He noted how early space programs, which were sorely lacking in suitable candidates, were positively affected by Nichols’ involvement in recruiting new astronauts from the field.
“His vision stuck with what the show stood for and coincided with what NASA felt but wasn’t quite sure how to implement it,” he said. “Yet all of a sudden, and I’m sure a lot of them still were today, they’re big ‘Star Trek’ fans.”
Nichelle Nichols and ‘Star Trek’ co-star George Takei (pictured in 2015) have worked together on dozens of episodes of the futuristic series.
(Bruce Gilkas/FilmMagic)
Johnson, who will attend the start later this year, will also continue his mother’s legacy of inspiring future generations through the Nichelle Nichols Foundation, which will launch on December 28 and what would have been its 90th anniversary.
“The number of support messages, letters, emails and phone calls received over the past 30 days is more valuable than I ever thought possible,” he said. “The kindness and thoughtfulness of so many people got me through this.”
When asked if he had one last word to remember his mother, Johnson simply replied, “Live long and prosper.”
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