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Nichols, who died on July 30 at age 89, is
credited with helping shatter racial stereotypes and redefining
Hollywood roles for Black actors at the height of the U.S. Civil
Rights movement, as one of the first Black women to portray an
empowered character on network television.
Now she has been added to the posthumous passenger manifest of a
real-life rocketship due to carry a collection of vials
containing cremated ashes and DNA samples from dozens of
departed space enthusiasts on a final, and eternal voyage around
the sun, according to organizers of the tribute.
A date for the launch has not yet been set.
Other “Star Trek” cast members and executives who have had
remains launched into space include James Doohan, who played the
show’s chief engineer Scotty, and “Star Trek” creator Gene
Roddenberrry.
Also joining the launch will be the remains of Roddenberry’s
wife, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who played nurse Christine
Chapel on the series, and the renowned sci-fi visual effects
artist Douglas Trumbull, whose work was featured in such films
as “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”
The launch is organized by Celestis Inc, a Texas-based company
that has created a unique niche in the burgeoning commercial
space sector by offering a measure of cosmic immortality to
customers that can afford a dramatic send-off, which contracts
with private rocket ventures.
Celestis has not divulged the fees for this flight but lists the
pricing for its memorial spaceflights https://www.celestis.com/experiences-pricing/
on its website.
The upcoming memorial flight will be aboard a Vulcan Centaur
rocket, still under development by the Boeing and Lockheed
Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA).
Plans call for the 200-plus capsules carrying human remains and
DNA for what Celestis is calling its “Enterprise Flight” to go
inside the upper rocket stage that will fly on into deep space,
beyond the gravitational pull of the Earth and moon and
eventually enter a perpetual solar orbit, said Charles Chafer,
co-founder and chief executive officer of Celestis.
“It's a wonderful memorial for her, an eternal one,” Nichols'
son Kyle Johnson, told Reuters.
In the 1970s, Nichols was hired by NASA to help recruit more
marginalized groups and women to the space agency, where she was
influential in attracting such talent as the first woman U.S.
astronaut, Sally Ride, the first Black woman astronaut, Mae
Jemison, and the first Black NASA chief, Charlie Bolden.
(Reporting by Danielle Broadway; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
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