Nichelle Nichols

An upcoming launch will usher in a new era of commercial payloads being dropped off to deep space destinations like the Moon. As we gain greater access to space, things are going to start getting weird.China's Plan to Land Astronauts on the MoonOn Monday, Astrobotic’s long-awaited Peregrine lunar lander will blast off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying government and commercial payloads to the Moon. The lander is packed with a host of scientific instruments from NASA, a swarm of tiny robots from Mexico, and even a…

Enterprise mounted to the top of a modified Boeing 747 during OV-101 Flight 7 on October 12, 1977. The Shuttle’s Tail Cone was removed for this mission, exposing its mock engines. Photo: NASAPrior to the inaugural launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981, NASA conducted a series of performance tests with a prototype known as Enterprise. Named for the fictional Star Trek vessel, Enterprise provided our first glimpse of what a future spaceship might actually look like. When I was a kid, I loved to play with my toy…

On board a rocket named the Vulcan, a symbolic portion of Star Trek legend Nichelle Nichols’ ashes (donated by her son, Kyle Johnston) will be sent into space as a part of a deep-space trip that will honor many Star Trek luminaries. Gene Roddenberry and his wife, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, James “Scotty” Doohan, and VFX pioneer Douglass Trumbull will also be represented in the Celestis flight. There is also a memorial available on the Celestis website for any fans who wish to celebrate Nichols’ life and pay tribute to the…

After Nichelle Nichols passed over the weekend, the reactions from friends, family, and fans have been pouring out across social media. The actress, who famously starred in Star Trek as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, was a trailblazer on screen and behind the scenes, advocating for civil liberties, human rights, and diverse…Read more... After Nichelle Nichols passed over the weekend, the reactions from friends, family, and fans have been pouring out across social media. The actress, who famously starred in Star Trek as…

Actor Nichelle Nichols, who essayed the role of officer Lieutenant Uhura in the 1960s' show Star Trek and subsequent movies died at age 89, her family has confirmed. Nichelle "succumbed to natural causes and passed away" on Saturday night, her son, Kyle Johnson, posted on Facebook. Also Read: Star Trek Strange New Worlds Review: A harmless, large-hearted yet forgettable addition to the Star Trek universeSharing the news on Facebook from her account, Kyle wrote, “Friends, Fans, Colleagues, World. I regret to inform you…

Nichelle Nichols, the actress revered by “Star Trek” fans everywhere for her role as Lieutenant Uhura, communications officer on the starship USS Enterprise, died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico. She was 89. The cause was heart failure, said Sky Conway, a writer and a film producer who was asked by Kyle Johnson, Nichols’ son, to speak for the family. Nichols had a long career as an entertainer, beginning as a teenage supper-club singer and dancer in Chicago, her hometown, and later appearing on television. But she…

Image: ParamountNichelle Nichols, the original actor of Star Trek’s Nyota Uhura, has passed away on Saturday, July 30. The news broke on the actor’s Instagram account, as announced by her son, Kyle Johnson. Watch Spoilers of the Week: July 29th02:19Now playing Instant Food - From Sci-Fi to Sci-FactThursday 5:12PM01:27Now playing What is a Necrobotic Spider?Thursday 11:35AMDeveloping...Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s…

Screenshot: HuluOn Futurama, we learn that Al Gore heads up “a group of top nerds whose sole duty is to prevent disruptions in the space-time continuum” (it’s real, read the Constitution!). This superteam also includes Nichelle Nichols, Gary Gygax, Stephen Hawking, and chess-playing computer Deep Blue. Though they happen to be skilled at murder, they utterly fail at stopping Fry from destroying the universe, but—good news, everybody!—this happens on a “what if?” anthology episode that doesn’t affect Futurama’s own main…