Rocket with Scotty’s ashes returns to Earth
Apparently, this was an intentional thing.
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, New Mexico (AP) - A rocket payload carrying the ashes of actor James Doohan - Scotty on “Star Trek” - and astronaut Gordon Cooper should be recovered within a week from a remote New Mexico mountain range, the launch company said.UP Aerospace Inc. president Jerry Larson said recovery crews can get no closer than 400 metres to the payload because it landed in rocky, steep terrain in the San Andres Mountains.
“It’s on top of the mountain,” Larson said Friday. “The only way to get in there is by helicopter. But once we spot it, getting it out is the easy part.”
The rocket, carrying remains of about 200 people, made a four-minute suborbital flight and parachuted back to Earth.
I would have thought that the idea would have been to permanently place the ashes of these individuals in orbit, but I guess I must have missed the memo stating otherwise.
It’s kind of cool that the remains of astronauts and sci-fi actors are along on the inaugural flight of a rocket from the new private spaceport in New Mexico…it just seems like said remains ought to remain in space, though.
Maybe that’s for the second flight to achieve?
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