Last week during a Reddit AMA, Star Trek legend Nichelle Nichols revealed she’d be part of an upcoming NASA mission. SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) is an airborne observatory — a space telescope inside of a 747 that flies 50,000 feet above the Earth — a project that launched in 1977, apparently with Lt. Uhura aboard then, as well:
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.
A day after her Ask Me Anything session, she clarified a few points on her blog.
SOFIA is actually a second generation Airport Observatory. The first generation was the Keiper Airborne Observatory, flown in the mid 1970’s, which I also had the honor being able to fly on, and even operate the equipment!
Nichols will be boarding SOFIA on September 15, taking off from Palmdale, Calif. She hopes to find a way to liveblog her experience.
One can only assume she’s doing 100 percent better after her stroke in June. I can’t imagine NASA would clear her for any sort of ride-along if she wasn’t.
I’m all for putting as many Star Trek alumni in to space (or, near-space, as in this case) as we can. I mean, I assume any aliens we encounter will have already caught up with the show on Netflix, but maybe they’re House of Cards fans instead.
(Via Neatorama)