Nichelle Nichols Will Fly on a NASA Mission

(Image: CBS)

Actress Nichelle Nichols played Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek television series. Now, at the age of 82, she's leaving Starfleet for service with NASA. The tabloid The Mirror reports that Nichols will fly on NASA's SOFIA space telescope. This modified 747 flies at an elevation of 50,000 feet to observe strange new worlds. Nichols told fans about this mission during a reddit AMA. She writes:

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.

I do hope someone gets some great pictures.

-via The Geek Twins