Originally published at: Watch Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek's Uhura, recruiting for NASA in 1977 | Boing Boing
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Is that her natural hair? I know she wanted to wear an Afro on the show but wasn’t allowed to.
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So classy and charming…
Keep on trekking, Lieutenant Captain.
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1977… that was before any shuttles flew, IIRC. Interesting that they had a CRT display onboard (three of them, they say). Those things are SPO heavy compared to flatscreens of today!
For a long time, I’ve thought that NASA is the apex of what the American ideal could be. The people are smart, reasonable, can-do, and do seem to try hard to recruit and celebrate (as Nichelle says) women and minorities. Maybe my impression is wrong and I’ve been drinking too much NASA kool aid (or would it be Tang?).
For anyone who hasn’t heard the story already, Nichols was basically commanded by Martin Luther King Jr himself to represent and recruit POC into STEM and the spaceflight business
She did so with Star Trek and then with NASA when Star Trek wasn’t happening so much
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There was one aptly-named shuttle that flew that year, albeit not into orbit…
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Man, that really got meta when an image of that shuttle made an appearance in Star Trek: the Motion Picture since (obviously) the shuttle was named after the fictional ship.
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I could have sworn there was a model of that space shuttle in the Enterprise-D’s conference room but I guess I misremembered. There was a model of the nuclear aircraft carrier that Chekov snuck aboard in Star Trek IV though.
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