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The ashes of late Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols will be launched into space later this year. Celestis, a private company that conducts memorial space flights, announced Friday that a portion of Nichols' ashes and a DNA sample will be launched into space by United Launch Alliance and released from a Vulcan Centaur rocket. "We are truly honored to add a legendary actress, activist and educator to the Enterprise Flight manifest," Charles M. Chafer, co-founder and CEO of Celestis, said in a statement. Nichols died July 31 at age 89. She was one of the first Black women to play...

Actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura on the original Star Trek television series in the 1960s, passed away over the weekend at 89. The Hollywood Reporter published an obituary including many celebrity comments and tweets in her memory, and the article began as follows: ------------------------------------------- Among those paying tribute to Nichols was President Joe Biden, who praised her as a “trailblazer of stage and screen who redefined what is possible for Black Americans and women.” His statement continued about her Star Trek role, “With a defining dignity and authority, she helped tell a central story that reimagined scientific pursuits...

https://snbc13.com/nichelle-nichols-american-actress-and-star-trek-nyota-uhura-has-died-at-89-death/

Nichelle Nichols, an actress whose role as the communications chief Uhura in the original “Star Trek” franchise in the 1960s helped break ground on TV by showing a Black woman in a position of authority and who shared with co-star William Shatner one of the first interracial kisses on American prime-time television, died July 30 at 89.

PBS' continuing series "Pioneers in Television" features an episode on sci-fi programming Tuesday night that includes an extensive interview with "Star Trek" star Nichelle Nichols. The timing of the telecast (Ch. 13, 8 p.m.) is accidental, but is significant because it falls a day after today's Martin Luther King holiday. Had it not been for King, Nichols' career may have been different. After a year with"Star Trek" as communications officer Lieutenant Uhura, she turned in her resignation. But at an NAACP event that weekend, she ran into King. "One of the promoters came up and said someone wanted to meet...