--- title: Star Trek Actress Nichelle Nichols to Fly on NASA Mission description: She's be flying on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy canonical: https://time.com/3983470/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-nasa/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-04T11:08:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:17.071Z og:title: Star Trek Actress Nichelle Nichols to Fly on NASA Mission og:description: She's be flying on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy og:url: https://time.com/3983470/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-nasa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdceb424837c7e5ae/69885dbf3c163908384591a8/nichelle-nichols.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Nichelle Nichols nasa flight og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Star Trek Actress Nichelle Nichols to Fly on NASA Mission twitter:description: She's be flying on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdceb424837c7e5ae/69885dbf3c163908384591a8/nichelle-nichols.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Star Trek_ Actress Nichelle Nichols to Fly on NASA Mission ## Video: A Year in Space - Ep.2: Unlikely Allies [Watch (HLS stream): A Year in Space - Ep.2: Unlikely Allies](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BsrUPYjJ.m3u8) (12:50)  _Published 2015-07-06. A Year in Space - Ep.2: Unlikely Allies_ by [Drew Mackie / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Drew Mackie / People Contributor Aug 4, 2015 11:08 AM UTC  Nichelle Nichols attends Florida Supercon at the Miami Beach Convention Center on July 4, 2014 in Miami Beach. Nichelle Nichols attends Florida Supercon at the Miami Beach Convention Center on July 4, 2014 in Miami Beach.Gustavo Caballero—Getty Images by [Drew Mackie / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Drew Mackie / People Contributor Aug 4, 2015 11:08 AM UTC It’s been 49 years since [Nichelle Nichols](http://www.people.com/people/news/category/0,,personsTax:NichelleNichols,00.html) took on the role of Lt. Uhura on the original _Star Trek_ series, but her relationship with space exploration is continuing. The actress, 82, revealed on Friday during [a Reddit AMA](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3f6oq1) that she will be a passenger on an upcoming flight of NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy ([SOFIA](http://www.nasa.gov/mission%5Fpages/sofia/index.html)), an aircraft equipped with a powerful telescope used to study the planet’s atmosphere, investigate comets and more. The flight takes off on Sept. 15. Nichols – who has recovered from [a minor stroke](http://www.people.com/article/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-suffers-minor-stroke) she suffered in June – clarified on Reddit that no, she won’t actually be heading into the final frontier, however. “SOFIA does not, sadly, fly into space,” she said. “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 airborne observatory, back in 1977\. It’s an amazing experience, you get a totally different perspective than from Earth. I do hope someone gets some great pictures.” [_This article originally appeared on People.com_](http://www.people.com/article/nichelle-nichols-star-trek-nasa-mission) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3983470/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-nasa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3983470/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-nasa/"},"headline":"Star Trek Actress Nichelle Nichols to Fly on NASA Mission","datePublished":"2015-08-04T11:08:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:17.071Z","description":"She's be flying on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy","url":"https://time.com/3983470/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-nasa/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","NASA","Star Trek"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdceb424837c7e5ae/69885dbf3c163908384591a8/nichelle-nichols.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Drew Mackie / People"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdceb424837c7e5ae/69885dbf3c163908384591a8/nichelle-nichols.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Nichelle Nichols nasa flight","caption":"Nichelle Nichols nasa flight","creditText":"Gustavo Caballero—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3983470/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-nasa/","name":"Star Trek Actress Nichelle Nichols to Fly on NASA Mission"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Year in Space - Ep.2: Unlikely Allies","description":"A Year in Space - Ep.2: Unlikely Allies","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/BsrUPYjJ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-07-06T18:45:50.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BsrUPYjJ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3983470/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-nasa/","duration":"PT12M50S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3983470/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-nasa/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```