{"id":57566,"date":"2022-08-27T00:27:05","date_gmt":"2022-08-27T00:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ashes-of-late-star-trek-actor-nichelle-nichols-to-rocket-into-space\/"},"modified":"2022-08-27T00:27:05","modified_gmt":"2022-08-27T00:27:05","slug":"ashes-of-late-star-trek-actor-nichelle-nichols-to-rocket-into-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ashes-of-late-star-trek-actor-nichelle-nichols-to-rocket-into-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashes Of Late ‘Star Trek’ Actor Nichelle Nichols To Rocket Into Space"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Humans have honored<\/span> their dead for centuries with burials at sea, but Nichelle Nichols belongs to the stars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nichols, the \u201cStar Trek\u201d actor, died last month in Silver City, New Mexico, at age 89. Private spaceflight company Celestis Inc. Friday that part of her ashes and a DNA sample will travel up to 186 million miles aboard its Vulcan rocket, which was named in honor of another \u201cStar Trek\u201d character. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe are truly honored to add a legendary actress, activist, and educator to the Enterprise Flight manifest,\u201d wrote Celestis CEO Charles M. Chafer. \u201cNow our Enterprise Flight will have on board the person who most completely embodied the vision of Star Trek as\u2026 diverse, inclusive, and exploring the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Celestis has sent cremated remains into space since the 1990s, according to Rolling Stone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nichols broke barriers with her role as Nyota Uhura in the original \u201cStar Trek\u201d series and films, becoming instrumental in the fight for Black representation on screen. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Her kiss with white \u201cStar Trek\u201d colleague William Shatner in a 1968 episode was the first interracial kiss on American television, according to NBC News. Nichols also inspired Mae Jemison to become an astronaut, with Jemison becoming the first Black woman in outer space in 1992.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cEvery role on Star Trek was as significant as it was legendary,\u201d wrote Celestis in the statement. \u201cMs. Nichols was the first black woman in a leading role in a network television series to portray a character that was not shackled by the stereotypes of Hollywood’s past.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Kyle Johnson, the actor’s son, said his mother “belongs” to the stars.<\/figcaption>
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Gabe Ginsberg via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Nichols’ last Kyle Johnson told the Los Angeles Times that he decided a spaceflight destination for the ashes was an \u201cappropriate memorial for her.\u201d He said that stars are \u201cwhere she belongs\u201d and that he will provide a DNA sample of his own to accompany her on the voyage \u2014 which some of her late friends have already done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Celestis launched the remains of \u201cStar Trek\u201d creator Gene Roddenberry and those of his wife to orbit on the Columbia shuttle in 1992. James Doohan, who played Montgomery Scott on \u201cStar Trek,\u201d and visual effects icon Douglas Trumbull also had their remains sent to space, according to AV Club.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The upcoming Enterprise Flight, however, will go where no man mentioned above has gone before. Set to launch later this year from Cape Canaveral, Florida, it will take more than 200 capsules containing ashes, messages and DNA samples on an infinite journey through the stars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMy only regret is that I cannot share this eternal tribute standing beside my mother at the launch,\u201d wrote Johnson. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Those willing to participate in the memorial can add their names and messages to the Celestis Enterprise Flight portal \u2014 and have their digitized tributes accompany Nichols aboard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n