The actress broke new ground for Black women in film and TV, and brought minorities and women into NASA. Nichelle Nichols, the trailblazing actress and singer best known as the USS Enterprise’s communications officer Lieutenant Uhura in the original TV show "Star Tek", has died at the age of 89. “I regret to inform you that a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years,” wrote her son, Kyle Johnson, on the website Uhura.