Scotty's Final Trip To The Final Frontier

Star Trek Actor's Ashes Briefly Launched Into Space

(CBS)  The cremated remains of actor James Doohan, who portrayed engineer "Scotty" on "Star Trek," and of Apollo 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper soared briefly into suborbital space Saturday aboard a rocket.

It was the first successful launch from Spaceport America, a commercial spaceport being developed in the southern New Mexico desert.

Suzan Cooper and Wende Doohan fired the rocket carrying small amounts of their husbands' ashes at 8:56 a.m. local time.

"Go baby, go baby," said Eric Knight of the commercial launch company, UP Aerospace Inc. of Farmington, Connecticut.

Since it was a suborbital flight, the rocket soon plummeted back to Earth, coming down at the White Sands Missile Range. The payload with the remains descended by parachute.

"We nailed it. We stuck the landing," said Knight.

UP Aerospace launched the first rocket from the desert site in September, but that Spaceloft XL rocket crashed into the desert after spiraling out of control about nine seconds after liftoff. Company officials blamed the failure on a faulty fin design.

Family members paid $495 to place a few grams of their relatives' ashes on the rocket. Celestis, a Houston company, contracted with UP to send the cremated remains into space.

Charles Chafer, chief executive of Celestis, said last month that a CD with more than 11,000 condolences and fan notes was placed on the rocket with Doohan's remains.

Doohan died in July 2005 at age 85. The remains of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry were sent into space in 1997.

The launch from the fledgling spaceport — currently a 100-foot by 25-foot concrete slab in a patch of desert more than 50 miles north of Las Cruces — keeps the New Mexico project ahead of its nearest competitor, in West Texas.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, is said to be developing the spaceport north of Van Horn, Texas. Bezos' Blue Origin is working to develop tourist space flights.

British billionaire Richard Branson also has announced plans to launch a space tourism company, which is expected to have its headquarters at the New Mexico spaceport.

[gary-hamm]

Gordo cooper was the last man to go into space alone. The last of the Project Mercury Program.

[downtowner97]

I'm so happy I'm living to see private space flights. I'm fine with my ashes staying down here, but my dreams are up there.

[thomderr]

No matter. The mans wishes are the mans wishes.

You would have, hopefully, carried them out for your loved one.

Besides, it was much less than say, a multi-million dollar trip to the space station!

[michellem99-2009]

That is right Cooper never flew in the Apollo program.I was 14 when Apollo 7 went into space.It was the first manned mission into space in the Apollo program.10/11/68 TO 10/22/68. Crew,Wally Schirra, Walter Cunningham,and Donn Eisele.I watched the Apollo flights on tv and heard them on radio.The press need to get their facts right. before they print it.

[thelastjedi1]

Major error in the first sentence of this story. Gordon Cooper flew Mercury Atlas-9 (Faith 7) and Gemini V, but never flew an Apollo mission. By the time of Apollo, he had fallen from grace with the powers that be at NASA.

[michellem99-2009]

I am a star trek fan.I have seen every show and movie.I am glad his remains went in space.I feel that his widow carried his wishes.Scotty you flew in space in death.

[erasmus6]

I have never heard of anything so stupid in my entire life. $495 just to go up and come back down again? What a waste of money. I could understand maybe if the ashes went up and remained in space, maybe.

[Rlimbach1482]

I think that it was a waste if he only went half way and not into orbit the whole way. I think he would have wanted to go the whole way.