She was barrier breaking actress when she joined the cast of Star Trek. Now Nichelle Nichols will be part of an upcoming mission to space. Not unlike some of her previous cast mates.
Nichols died in July at 89, but memorial spaceflight company Celestis Inc. will launch a portion of her cremated ashes and a sample of her DNA about 90 to 190 million miles into space on its appropriately named Enterprise Flight, the company announced Thursday. The rocket named Vulcan is currently scheduled to depart later this year from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and leave the Earth-moon system. According to a press release, Vulcan will set its Peregrine lunar lander “on a trajectory for its rendezvous with the moon,” and “the Centaur upper stage will then continue into deep space, entering an orbit around the sun, becoming humanity’s furthermost reaching outpost, which will then be renamed the Enterprise Station.”
It’s pretty cool. DNA from Nichols’s adult son, actor Kyle Johnson, will make the trip, too. In fact, more than 200 flight capsules with ashes, DNA and messages from loved ones will be included on the flight, which will launch atop the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan. Others who worked with Nichols on the sci-fi phenomenon and have since died also will be part of the mission: Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his actress wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry, who played nurse Christine Chapel in the original series; actor James Doohan, who played Scotty in the show and movies; and visual effects artist Douglas Trumbull, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture.