James Doohan's final frontier: 'Scotty' climbs the heavens

By Stone Martindale Apr 28, 2007, 18:25 GMT

Justin Smith, 10, uses a pair of binoculars to look at the UP Aerospace \'Spaceloft XL\' launch in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico April 28, 2007. Actor James Doohan, who played the starship Enterprise\'s chief engineer Scotty on \'Star Trek,\' finally made it to space on Saturday as a rocket with some of his ashes was launched in New Mexico. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

James Doohan, the star "Scotty" from the iconic American television series Star Trek, gets a final reward as his remains are flown into space.

The ashes of Doohan, who played the engineer "Scotty" and of Apollo 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper soared into suborbital space Saturday aboard a rocket, reported CNN.

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

CNN reports widows Suzan Cooper and Wende Doohan fired the rocket carrying their husbands' ashes at 8:56 a.m. local time.

The journey was described as a suborbital flight, the rocket soon returned to Earth, coming down at the White Sands Missile Range.

Family members were reported to have 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.

Celestis company executives tell the media that a CD with more than 11,000 condolences and fan notes was placed with Doohan's remains for the trip.

Doohan died in July 2005 at age 85. "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry's ashes were also sent into space in 1997 according to the AP.

Other moguls such as British billionaire Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, are developing similar tourist space companies