Nichelle Nichols' DNA To Join Gene Roddenberry in Space

This is the most fitting tribute to the late "Star Trek" icon.

Boldly Go

The late Nichelle Nichols' DNA is set to be launched into space on a Vulcan rocket, where it will be joining "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry on the final flight of the Enterprise.

In a press release less than a month after the trailblazing actress' passing at the age of 89, the memorial spaceflight company Celestis announced that a sample of Nichols' ashes and DNA will accompany those of Roddenberry, his wife Majel, fellow "Star Trek" actor James Doohan, and a bunch of other spaceflight enthusiasts on the Enterprise Flight. The capsule will launch on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket later this year before heading into deep space.

Nichols' son Kyle Johnson is also sending his own DNA up with his mother's on the Enterprise voyage.

"My only regret is that I cannot share this eternal tribute standing beside my mother at the launch," Johnson said in the release. He added that messages from Nichols' fans will be flown on the Vulcan rocket alongside his and his mother's DNA.

Sweetest Goodbye

Though this is the first "funeral" flight named after Enterprise, it's not a first for Celestis or for Roddenberry, whose ashes have been taken into space twice since his 1991 death — once in 1992, when NASA astronaut James Weatherbee carried some of the "Star Trek" creator's ashes aboard the Columbia Space Shuttle, and again in 1997, on Celestis' "Founder's Flight," which was the first time in history that human remains were taken to space on a private spaceflight.

The whole thing is poignant and symbolic, and we can promise there won't be a dry eye Futurism.

READ MORE: Nichelle Nichols Finds A Final Resting Place Among The Stars [Celestis]

More space ashes: Florida Prepares to Shoot Remains of 47 People Into Space