WASHINGTON — Nichelle Nichols, who blazed trails and enshrined herself in TV history with her portrayal of Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek TV series, is headed up on a NASA flight next month.
Sadly, the SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) flight that takes off Sept. 15 won’t actually get into space, Nichols said during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit.
“It’s an airborne observatory, a massive telescope mounted inside a 747 flying as high as is possible.”
She was on the first such flight, in 1977, she says. She called it “an amazing experience,” adding that “you get a totally different perspective than from earth.”
She also helped NASA recruit women and members of ethnic minorities, including Charles Bolden, who has since become NASA’s administrator.
You’ll be able to find out for yourself — Nichols, 82, will stream “as much from that as I can” on the website StarPower, which she’s co-founded, that allows celebrities to raise money for charities by auctioning off memorabilia, fan meetings and more.
The Ask Me Anything session also included a recap of her time on “Star Trek,” including a confirmation from Nichols that Dr. Martin Luther King called Uhura “the first non-stereotypical role portrayed by a black woman in television history” and that, when series creator Gene Roddenberry heard of King’s comments, his reaction was essentially, “Finally, someone gets it.”
She added that the civil rights leader encouraged her to stay on the show when Nichols, who considered herself more of a singer than an actress, was offered a role on Broadway.
She says King told her that she was a symbol, like it or not, and that she could easily be replaced by a white woman and her pioneering role forgotten.
“That got me thinking about how it would look for fans of color around the country if they saw me leave. I saw that this was bigger than just me.”
h/t People
