| NASA Center: |
Headquarters |
| Image # : |
77-H-152 |
|---|
| Date : |
03/24/1977
|
|---|
|
Title
Nichelle Nichols, NASA Recruiter
Full Description
Actress Nichelle Nichols was born in Robbins, Illinois on
December 29, 1936. She played Lieutenant Uhura the
Communications Officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise in the original
series, Star Trek. Nichols stayed with the show and has
appeared in six Star Trek movies. Her portrayal of Uhura on
Star Trek marked one of the first non-stereotypical roles
assigned to an African-American actress. She also provided the
voice for Lt. Uhura on the Star Trek animated series in 1974-75.
Before joining the crew on Star Trek, she sang and danced with
Duke Ellington's band.
Nichols was always interested in space travel. She flew aboard
the C-141 Astronomy Observatory, which analyzed the atmospheres
of Mars and Saturn on an eight hour, high altitude mission.
From the late 1970's until the late 1980's, NASA employed
Nichelle Nichols to recruit new astronaut candidates. Many of
her new recruits were women or members of racial and ethnic
minorities, including Guion Bluford (the first African-American
astronaut), Sally Ride (the first female American astronaut),
Judith Resnik (one of the original set of female astronauts, who
perished during the launch of the Challenger on January 28,
1986), and Ronald McNair (the second African-American astronaut,
and another victim of the Challenger accident). Currently
Nichelle Nichols is actively involved in movies and special
appearances. She is also a spokesperson for her favorite
charity, "The Kwanzaa Foundation."
Keywords
Nichelle Nichols Star Trek Recruiting Women Lieutenant Uhura Judith Resnik Sally Ride Guion Bluford Ronald McNair
Subject Category
Women,
Reference Numbers
- Center:
HQ
- Center Number:
77-H-152
- GRIN DataBase Number:
GPN-2004-00017
Source Information
- Creator/Photographer: NASA
- Original Source: DIGITAL
| Resolution | Format | Width
(Pixels) | Height
(Pixels) | Size
(KBytes) |
| Thumbnail |
JPEG |
67 |
84 |
17 |
| Small |
JPEG |
478 |
600 |
167 |
| Medium |
JPEG |
1120 |
1407 |
668 |
| Large |
JPEG |
1 |
2815 |
2,363 |
Other relevant NASA Web sites:
• NASA Headquarters
• NASA History Office
• NASA Image eXchange (NIX)
• NASA Multimedia Gallery
• NASA Human Spaceflight
Updated Jun 18, 2009
• History Questions: NASA History Office
• Responsible NASA Official: Steve Garber
• Author: Michael Hahn. Editor: Dwayne A. Day
• Curator & Technical Questions: Erin Needham
• NASA's Privacy Statement
|
