Celebrities from TV's classic "Star Trek" and America's space program are due to take a posthumous trip to the final frontier – and back – on April 28, when an UP Aerospace suborbital rocket carries the cremated remains of "Star Trek" actor James "Scotty" Doohan, NASA astronaut Gordon "Gordo" Cooper and more than 200 others on a memorial spaceflight.
The flight - organized by Celestis Corp., a subsidiary of Houston-based Space Services Inc. - has been in the planning stage for more than a year. Here's how it works: Ashes from the dearly departed are placed in metal capsules about the size of lipstick tubes, then put aboard the rocket for launch from New Mexico's Spaceport America to an altitude of about 70 miles, just beyond the internationally accepted boundary of space. The payload then falls back to earth for recovery.
"We will take those capsules, and we'll mount them on beautiful plaques, and they will be a keepsake for the families," Susan Schonfeld, a spokeswoman for Space Services, told me today.
A memorial ceremony will be conducted on the eve of the flight at Alamogordo's New Mexico Museum of Space History, Schonfeld said.
Doohan and Cooper are the best-known names on the flight list:
- Cooper orbited Earth 22 times during his Mercury 9 flight in 1963, becoming the last American to fly alone in space until SpaceShipOne's private-sector astronauts did it in 2004. Cooper was also the command pilot for Gemini 5 in 1965. He died in 2004 at the age of 77.
- Doohan played Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott on the classic "Star Trek" TV show in the 1960s, and reprised that role in several "Trek" movies. His portrayal of "Scotty" was the highlight of a TV and film career that spanned more than 50 years. He died in 2005 at the age of 85.
Among those attending the launch will be Doohan's widow, Wende C. Doohan. "While 'Scotty' lived this, Jimmy lived for this," she said in a Space Services news release. "I will be there, to see the launch, knowing that Jimmy is participating in an industry which he loved so very much."
If this flight is successful, it would mark the first true space foray for Connecticut-based UP Aerospace. The venture's maiden launch ended in failure last September, but the company says it has resolved the aerodynamic problems that prevented the earlier Spaceloft XL rocket from getting up to space.
It would also mark the first real space mission for Spaceport America, which is seeking support from local taxpayers in an April 3 ballot. That vote could well determine how quickly the New Mexico spaceport moves ahead with its plans for a $198 million suborbital space tourism complex.
This week, the spaceport authority announced agreement on the terms of a future lease with billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic - and on Friday, the spaceport is planning a spacecraft integration ceremony for the UP Aerospace flight. All this activity seems aimed at raising the spaceport's visibility in advance of next week's vote.
"We're all breaking new ground," Rick Homans, chairman of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority and cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Economic Development Department, was quoted as saying in Space Services' release. "We're in this for the long term, developing new businesses and new technologies."
Celestis offers space-themed memorial packages ranging from $499 (for a suborbital-and-back flight) to $12,500 or more (for a one-way trip beyond Earth orbit).
“Space remains the domain of the few, the dream of many,” Charles Chafer, chief executive officer for Celestis and Space Services, said in the release. “With Celestis, the dream of spaceflight, and the desire to take part in the opening of the space frontier, can be realized - and is available to everyone."
Next month's flight won't necessarily mark the final trip to the final frontier for Doohan and Cooper: Samples of their ashes are also due to fly as part of Celestis' secondary payload aboard SpaceX's next Falcon 1 flight, Chafer told me last week. That launch is scheduled for September.