WASHINGTON 鈥� 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 (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) flight that takes off Sept. 15 won鈥檛 actually get into space, Nichols said during an .
鈥淚t’s an airborne observatory, a massive telescope mounted inside a 747 flying as high as is possible.鈥�
She was on the first such flight, in 1977, she says. She called it 鈥渁n amazing experience,鈥� adding that 鈥測ou get a totally different perspective than from earth.鈥�
She聽 also helped NASA recruit women and members of ethnic minorities, including Charles Bolden, who has since become NASA’s administrator.
You鈥檒l be able to find out for yourself 鈥� Nichols, 82, will stream 鈥渁s much from that as I can鈥� on the website , which she鈥檚 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 鈥淪tar Trek,鈥� including a confirmation from Nichols that Dr. Martin Luther King called Uhura 鈥渢he first non-stereotypical role portrayed by a black woman in television history鈥� and that, when series creator Gene Roddenberry heard of King鈥檚 comments, his reaction was essentially, 鈥淔inally, someone gets it.鈥�
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.
鈥淭hat 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.鈥�
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