'Scotty' and 'Gordo' reach space and return

Stephen Withers
Sunday, 29 April 2007 12:07

Science - Space

A rocket carrying a portion of the remains of actor James Doohan (Star Trek's Montgomery "Scotty" Scott), real life astronaut Gordon "Gordo" Cooper and over 200 others made a successful sub-orbital flight yesterday.

The Spaceloft XL rocket reached an altitude of approximately 70 miles (115 kilometres) after being launched from Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert. The rocket and its payload - which also included dozens of student science experiments - parachuted safely back to Earth.

The charge for sending one gram of ashes on a suborbital flight is $US495.

Doohan requested in his will that his remains should travel into space. Another portion of his ashes will reportedly be part of the payload of a later orbital flight.

Cooper piloted the last Mercury mission (Faith 7) and was the commander of Gemini 5, which made him the first man to rack up two orbital spaceflights. Although he was backup commander of Apollo 10 and was expected to be named commander of (what turned out to be the ill-fated) Apollo 13, he did not fly any Apollo missions.

A memorial ceremony for Doohan and Cooper was held on Friday at the New Mexico Museum of Space History.