• Nichelle dies at the age of 89.
• Her son revealed the news on Facebook.
• She was diagnosed with dementia in 2018.

Nichelle Nichols, whose groundbreaking depiction of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in the original “Star Trek” television series broke through racial barriers, has passed away. She was 89 years old.

“Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away,” her son Kyle Johnson said on her Facebook page on Sunday.

“Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration,” he said. “Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.

“I, and the rest of our family, would appreciate your patience and forbearance as we grieve her loss until we can recover sufficiently to speak further. Her services will be for family members and the closest of her friends and we request that her and our privacy be respected.”

Johnson stated that his mother passed away in Silver City, New Mexico.

George Takei, who played Lt. Hikaru Sulu in the series, tweeted that he would “have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise.

“For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend,” Takei wrote.

NASA said that Nichols “symbolized to so many what was possible.

“She partnered with us to recruit some of the first women and minority astronauts, and inspired generations to reach for the stars,” the US space agency said.

At a time when black women were primarily represented as servants as opposed to leadership figures, Nichols’ “Star Trek” performance defied preconceptions for black actresses.

After she informed the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967 that she had decided not to return for the second season, he begged her to remain with the show.

“When I told him I was going to miss my co-stars and I was leaving the show, he became very serious and said, ‘You cannot do that,’ ” she said to the Tulsa World in a 2008 interview.

“ ‘You’ve changed the face of television forever, and therefore, you’ve changed the minds of people,’ ” she said the civil-rights leader added.

She remained with the series from 1966 until its conclusion in 1969.

Unprecedented at the time, she and co-star William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk, experienced an interracial on-screen kiss. The two characters’ relationship in the show was always platonic, but in one episode aliens controlling their brains compelled them to kiss.

Alongside other original cast members, she participated in the first of six movie spinoffs for the series in 1979.

She appeared on the television series “Heroes” more recently.

In recent years, Nichols experienced health concerns.

In 2018, it was revealed that she had been diagnosed with dementia. She experienced a stroke in 2015.

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