Ashes of Doohan Sent Into Space

Stephen Samuel writes "The CBC is reporting that Star Trek actor James Doohan ("Scotty") achieved his hopes of having his ashes launched into space when a package containing some of his ashes, ashes of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper and about 200 other people were carried into sub-orbital space by a 6 meter (20') rocket. The rocket was launched by UP Aerospace from "Spaceport America", a commercial spaceport being developed in the southern New Mexico desert."

Don't beam me up.

So "beam me up, Scotty" is now going to translate to "kicking the bucket", eh.

Re:Don't beam me up.

No, you're thinking of "Beam me up, God".

Congrats, Scotty!

You made it into space. If only briefly.

>>the rocket soon parachuted back to Earth

"Aye, Cap'n, I cannough change the lews of physics"

Interestingly, Mr. Doohan was a huge fan of steam locomotives, far away from the high tech of Star Trek, donating his time to a museum, and acting as a locomotive engineer (ok, "driver" to some of you).

tph

NASA

Hmmmm... I would of thought some of the peeps at NASA could of thought of a more individual gesture than that. I realise he's not a REAL spaceman, but surely everyone at the big N A S A can tie a bit of their personal motivation back to good old Scottie....

Beam me up.

Re:NASA

Hmmmm... I would of thought some of the peeps at NASA could of thought of a more individual gesture than that. I realise he's not a REAL spaceman, but surely everyone at the big N A S A can tie a bit of their personal motivation back to good old Scottie....

Discovery channel (last year) did a special on Vitamin Trek, how ST changed and helped shaped technology. If you look at the Ion Propulsion lab at NASA, it looks quite a bit like the engine room of the NCC 1701.

He was of course an actor, but his acting was geek inspiring. I would have thought catapulting him to the sun or on a course likely to hit one of the gas giants would have been more fitting. I guess that costs money though :)

So in memorium I'd just like to say :

Up your shaft.

(no, not flame bait, he said that on the Excelsior when the turbo lift talked to him)

First Spock now Scotty

TFA doesn't say, but I presume it's aimed towards (planet) Genesis?

Sub-orbital space?

If you've got a small rocket (6 meters), that has already failed once, it's better to put part of the remains of a person in it than trying to fit a live person into it. So from that point of view I can understand this experiment.

But to shoot ashes into space, while knowing they will return anyway, and first viewing an unsucccessful launch (ugh), what's the point? Glad it worked this time, having to return a third time, only to do it all over again... that might have been hard for the relatives.

Re:Sub-orbital space?

Sure; if you want to fling corpses way up in the air and then have them land again, just use a trebuchet.

Guidbye, Scotty

May your dilithium crystals be fully charged, your matter/anti-matter reaction balanced, your wee bairns well cared for, and the transport to your final shore leave free of malfunctions.

Energise.

Sub-orbital space?

Is sub-orbital space the not-so-final frontier? Is he boldly almost going?

One Perspective!

NASA's first manned space flight carried only one passenger into space and back to earth. UP Aerospace sent over 200 passengers into space and return them in one piece (sort of)!

Yay!

I'm not normally very sentimental about human remains, but this is cool. It's an expression of hope. I loved Scotty...

they had trouble with the first launch

Ironicly, the best person to fix this rocket would have been scotty.

Fare thee well, Mr. Doohan

Now all that remains is to put a pint of seawater on the moon with the appropriately inscribed air cylinder shipping label.

/obscure, see if you can get it.

Seems to be a feeble gesture to me

When you consider that the atoms that made up his body were most likely created by stellar nuclear synthesis and distributed around the universe by supernova.

If they shot my toenail clippings into space I wouldn't really feel like I had been there. No matter how many clippings were used.

James Doohan WW2 Vet

I remember reading a bio of James Doohan when he died. My esteem went up for him greatly when I read that he was a WW2 vet. Born in Vancouver (woohoo!) and led a group of men at Juno beach on D-Day taking a few bullets in the process. The world seemed a little bit colder to me when I heard that he died. Fare thee well James.

Re:James Doohan WW2 Vet

Which cost him one of his fingers (and thankfully that's all). He tried to hide it as often as he could, but there are a few episodes of Star Trek where you can see his missing index finger in a shot or two. Also, unknown to most people, he provided the voices of a lot of the supporting and incidental characters in the animated Star Trek show. He always had a talent for voices.

suborbital?

It took a small part of his his ashes up then brought them back down... I bet that wasn't what he was thinking.

Craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Forces

Just read this at Wikipedia: "One of the many legendary stories of his flying years tells of Doohan slaloming a plane -- variously cited as a Hurricane or a jet trainer -- between mountainside telegraph poles to prove it could be done, which earned him a serious reprimand." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Doohan [wikipedia.org]

Mirror, Mirror...

Perhaps there's a place where a version of Scotty remains.

suborbital

It is suborbital, so the ashes will, eventually, fall back to earth. Their net energy is still negative.

Obligatory Scotty Quote

SCOTT (to Waiter): "What in blazes is this?"

WAITER (confused): "Didn't you order Scotch?"

SCOTT: "Lad, I was drinking scotch about a hundred years before you were born and I can tell you that whatever this is, it is definitely not scotch."

DATA (to Waiter): "I believe I may be of some assistance. Captain Scott is unaware of the existence of synthehol."

SCOTT: "Synthehol?"

DATA: "Yes. It is an alcohol substitute which is now normally served aboard starships. It simulates the appearance, smell, and taste of alcohol, but the intoxicating effects can be easily dismissed."

SCOTT: "You're not quite... human are you?"

DATA: "No, sir. I am an android. My name is Commander Data."

SCOTT: "Synthetic scotch and synthetic commanders..."

DATA: "I believe Guinan does keep a limited supply of non-syntheholic products. Perhaps one of them would be to your liking."

Data bends down and reaches under the bar... then stands up and puts a very old bottle of a green liquid on the bar.

SCOTT: "What is it?"

DATA: "It is..." (tries to inspect the label) "It is..." (takes a sniff of it) "...it is green."

Re:Obligatory Scotty Quote

Relics, TNG episode 130.

As noted in this episode description, "It is green" was a reference to nearly the same line spoken by Scotty in By Any Other Name [wikipedia.org], TOS, episode 51.

well...

He's dead, Jim.

Sub-orbital?

If I were going to have my ashes sent into space, I'd want my own personal canister aboard a larger payload that gets launched out into space; as in, keeps on going and going and going forever, away from Earth (at least until I hit a planet or star or something). Maybe even a tiny ion engine to continually accelerate.

Aikon-

Rest in Peace, Mr. Scott

I was lucky to meet Mr. Doohan at a book signing in Los Angeles 15 years ago. May he rest in peace and I am glad he got his final wish. Mr. Scott is definitely my favorite Star Trek character and thank you so much for acting him out.

"He called you a tin-plated dictator with delusions of grandeur."
"So, that's when you hit him?"
"No, sir, you told us to be restrained." ...
"He called the Enterprise a pile of garbage and that's when I hit him."
"You're relieved of duty and confined to quarters until further notice."
"Aye, sir! That will give me time to catch up on my technical reading!"

-sb (What are you drinking? It's ... um, it's green!)

When my time comes I want

to have my ashes shot into the sun.
Because we all that we are came from the sun and other suns, I feel it would be a genuine continuance of the circle of life to return whence we came. Forget "ashes to ashes", I prefer "atoms to atoms"..

The sun is the real giver of life.

Wow, what are the odds...?

Scotty and Captain Pike [inthenews.co.uk] launched in the same week!

Quick! Everyone get an ape mask before they...

Oh. Wait. Never mind.

Ashes of Doohan

I thought it was a new Harry Potter book!

The Fact Is We Are All Made Out of Star Stuff

(Apologies to Carl Sagan)

But we are. Every one of us and everything we know around us is made up of star debris. We are all the products of fusion reactions in stars. We are made of atoms that are billions and billions of years old.

We have been deep in space. We have ridden on asteroids, meteorites, comets, and planets.

It's kind of cool to think about it.

Scotty too Hotty

I thought they were going to beam his ashes into space [thetoque.com]!

Makes me think

of what I would want done with my ashes. Doohan had a lover for outer space. I want my ashes shot into a woman. If there was any DNA left, I guess they could name the kid "Ashley"

Ashes of Doohan

Ashes of Doohan: Band name or sci-fi/fantasy series?

Why was I born?

Visitor: So, these are the ashes of Scotty, eh?

Techician: Yeah.

Visitor: (taps off end of cigar into urn) Looks like Scotty put on a little weight.

i Hope that

i hope that they were put in separate boxes because if, someone in a thousand years opens that box and tries to rebuild a human from dna.

It's going to be a serious mess of a human.

My name is scotty, or is it doohan, maybe it's martha ,,,,wait i'm pretty sure i'v been there and done that, why do i have breast?

I'd very much prefer...

A story announicng that Braga and Berman's ashes had been sent into space...

Re:Great

Had you read the article, you'd know this was a sub-orbital flight. Nothing left in space.

From TFA:

Since it was a suborbital flight, the rocket soon parachuted back to Earth, coming down at the White Sands Missile Range.

While technically a spaceflight, it was more or less a really high-altitude rocket.

Re:Great, more crap in orbit.

When you troll you should at least have *some* knowledge (just a tiny bit) about the topic. And if you think you possess such knowledge I'm curious: Exactly what do think "sub-orbital" means??

I know /. is a fun place to troll but this was just pathetic. Oh well, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it. Most ACs do...