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mdash; The cremated remains of actor James Doohan, who portrayed engineer ldquo;Scotty rdquo; on ldquo;Star Trek, rdquo; and of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper soared into suborbital space Saturday aboard a rocket.
It was the first successful launch from Spaceport America, a commercial spaceport being developed in the southern New Mexico desert.
Suzan Cooper and Wende Doohan fired the rocket carrying small amounts of their husbands rsquo; ashes, and those of about 200 others, at 8:56 a.
m. local time.
ldquo;Go baby, go baby, rdquo; said Eric Knight of the commercial launch company, UP Aerospace Inc.
of Farmington, Conn.
Since it was a suborbital flight, the rocket soon parachuted back to Earth, coming down at the White Sands Missile Range.
ldquo;We nailed it.
We stuck the landing, rdquo; said Knight.
UP Aerospace launched the first rocket from the desert site in September, but that Spaceloft XL rocket crashed into the desert after spiraling out of control about nine seconds after liftoff. Company officials blamed the failure on a faulty fin design.
Family members paid $495 to place a few grams of their relatives rsquo; ashes on the rocket. Celestis, a Houston company, contracted with UP to send the cremated remains into space.
Family and friends who watched the 20-foot rocket take off from about 4 miles away cheered and cried as it flew and the mission control center announced the launch was successful.
Wende Doohan, of Renton, Wash., said her husband of 30 years sought a space ride for his remains after ldquo;Star Trek rdquo; creator Gene Roddenberry rsquo;s remains were launched in 1997. James Doohan died in July 2005 at age 85.
On Saturday morning she wore a flight jacket from Doohan rsquo;s son-in-law, Air Force Reserve Chief Master Sgt. Paul Pritchard, who died this week of cancer.
ldquo;He and Jimmy are together watching history, rdquo; Wende Doohan said.
Kathy Allums rsquo; uncle, James Roach, told relatives long before his death three years ago that he wanted his remains flown to space. Some laughed at the seemingly crazy idea.
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