The barrier-breaking Star Trek actress’s remains will enter outer space later this year
Nichelle Nichols is getting an appropriate send-off.
Celestial Memorial Spaceflights — a company that offers memorial flights into outer space — announced on Thursday that the late actress’ remains will be heading deep into outer space on its upcoming Celestis Enterprise Flight.
“We are absolutely honored to announce that the late Nichelle Nichols will be joining the ‘crew’ aboard the upcoming Celestis Enterprise Flight, headed to deep space later this year alongside several of her fellow Star Trek icons,” the company shared on Instagram. “Nichols joins Gene Roddenberry, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, and James ‘Scotty’ Doohan on a groundbreaking journey that is the first of its kind.”
Per the company’s website, Celestial Memorial Spaceflights conducts such trips “affordably launching the spacecraft to, and returning from, outer space; orbiting planet Earth; to the Moon; and soon into deep space.” Reservations for the flight Nichols is boarding will start at $12,500.
Ahead of the big voyage, Celestial Memorial Spaceflights is also allowing fans to send tribute messages to Nichols that will be launched into deep space alongside her.
PEOPLE has reached out to Nichols’ team for comment.
Nichols broke barriers in her portrayal of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura on the original Star Trek series. At the time, she was one of the first Black women to have a part of this caliber on primetime television.
The star was later credited with having the first interracial kiss on American television, when her character locked lips with William Shatner’s Captain James T. Kirk.
Outside of acting, Nichols helped recruit diverse astronauts, including women and other minorities, for NASA. Sally Ride, the first female American astronaut, was among those recruits.
Nichols died on July 31 at 89 years old. Before her death, she was in a battle for her conservatorship. Her son, Kyle Johnson, had served as her legal conservator.
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