'Star Trek' Actress Nichelle Nichols to Take Part in NASA Mission
The "Star Trek" actress is still exploring at 82.
— -- "Star Trek" icon Nichelle Nichols revealed Monday during a Reddit AMA that she will be involved in an upcoming NASA mission.
"In September, I’m traveling on a NASA SOFIA flight, a second generation Airborn Observatory, which I am honored to have been invited too," she told fans before her "Ask Me Anything" began.
SOFIA stands for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, where Nichols will be part of the crew in the aircraft that will study Earth's atmosphere, among other things, from the sky.
The sad part was Nichols won't be heading into space.
"SOFIA does not, sadly, fly into space. It's an airborne observatory, a massive telescope mounted inside a 747 flying as high as is possible. I was on a similar flight, the first airborn observatory, back in 1977. It's an amazing experience, you get a totally different perspective than from earth," she wrote.
She adorably added, "I do hope someone gets some great pictures."
Nichols was also asked about her run on the original "Star Trek" series that began almost 50 years ago.
"I loved the whole show, from when I left to the studio to when I got home, and everything in between. My favorite episodes were anytime Uhura got to go to the planet,” she said. “I fought for that, the person who knows the planet and the people better than all of you is the communication officer! They don't need to communicate to me up on the ship, I've got the communicator right here.”
On whether she would ever appear in another movie, she said, "Of course!"
"It would have to be a very specific part, and I'd have to agree with the role. I can't imagine being completely OK with the ‘Star Trek’ story without Gene, however," she wrote.