Tuesday, May 22, 2012
SpaceX Launch Puts Star Trek's Scotty Into Space
The successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this morning, and the Dragon capsule, is set to make history with a docking of the International Space Station. It's also finally delivered the ashes of actor James Doohan, who played Scotty in the 1960's television series and subsequent "Star Trek" movies. Apparently, Doohan's ashes were delivered to space as part of a payload agreement with SpaceX and Celestis, which sells delivery of the deceased into space. Doohan apparently is orbiting the earth now as part of the second stage of the Falcon 9, which will eventually re-enter and burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. The successful delivery of Doohan's ashes to space help bring the effort to a close, after an earlier failure in August of 2008, when one of SpaceX's early launches failed with a portion of James Doohan's ashes on board. SpaceX successfully launched at 3:44 a.m. ET this morning. (Video below: SpaceX launches James Doohan's ashes into space).