Spinoff Online ‘Star Trek’s’ Nichelle Nichols Will Boldly Go Aboard Special

Nichelle Nichols, the actress famed for playing Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek series, revealed in a Reddit AMA on Thursday that she will be flying aboard NASA’s SOFIA space telescope when it takes to the sky in September.

“SOFIA does not, sadly, fly into space”, she noted. The television pioneer will instead work with the SOFIA mission, NASA’s initiative involving the world’s largest airborne observatory. “You get a totally different perspective than from Earth”.

Sofia (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) is described as the world’s largest airborne observatory, carrying a huge, gyro-stabilized telescope, cameras, spectrometers, photometers and more. “That got me thinking about how it would look for fans of color around the country if they saw me leave”.

Speaking on Starpower – a new website created to help celebrities fund some of their favourite projects – Nichols further explained her role on the mission: “I am honoured to say that I will be among the first non-essential personnel to experience NASA’s newest telescope: SOFIA”. She is now working with NASA in order to make that possible.

Nichols has been involved with NASA since the 1960s when she became an official ambassador.

King convinced her to do otherwise because her turn as Uhura was showcasing the first black woman on TV in a non-stereotypical role.

The actress who played Lt Uhura in Star Trek is to blast off on a mission for US space agency NASA aged 82 – and three months after suffering a stroke. In recent years, even President Obama was eager to give a Vulcan salute alongside Nichols. She is, however, into the idea of a Star Trek musical. “It would have to be a very specific part, and I’d have to agree with the role”.