Scotty's ashes found in New Mexico mountains

Alright, Scotty, let's try this again. Not long after the rocket carrying James "Scotty" Doohan's ashes into space crash-landed off course in New Mexico, the payload container has been found in the mountains of the White Sands Missile Range. (Clarification: it was Earthbound from the start, just not mountains-bound.) The container, which also holds some 200 other peoples' ashes, including original Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper, is reportedly in "good shape", and the Celestis International, which runs the Legacy Flight service, is planning on returning the lipstick-sized ash capsules to the family members of the departed, along with "mementos" of the launch. Scotty's got one more shot at space, however: later this year some more of his and Cooper's ashes are due to make an orbital trip on SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket, remaining there until they re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. Let's hope she canna teek some more this time, eh?

[Via First Coast News]

[Gnome32 @ May 19th 2007 11:17PM]

The flight was suborbital, with capsule retrieval planned. Nothing failed, at least relative to the flight.

[Drew @ May 19th 2007 11:43PM]

Like Gnome32 said, and I said the last time you posted about this, THE FLIGHT DIDN'T FAIL. It was DESIGNED to go up and come back down!

[LC @ May 19th 2007 11:28PM]

Really Gnome32. I wonder if Nilay and the rest of engadget read the story before posting. I's post a few quotes from the article they themselves link to:

"The payload was found in its designated recovery zone 20 days after Farmington, Conn.-based UP Aerospace sent it up in a 20-foot rocket on April 28."

"The rocket, the first to be successfully launched into space from the fledgling Spaceport America in southern New Mexico, made a 4-minute suborbital flight before drifting back to Earth."

"UP Aerospace co-founder Eric Knight said the payload "landed where we wanted it to be. It was just in difficult terrain." "


Come on engadget. This is the second time you've screwed this story up. It WAS NOT a failed spaceflight. It was only supposed to be suborbital for a few minutes then land back to Earth. I read this story a few times in the papers an nowhere did it say it was a failure. I guess a lack of attention led people to believe that Scotty would be orbiting Earth indefinitely.

[Sam @ May 19th 2007 11:36PM]

Scotty doesn't know, Scotty doesn't know, Scotty doesn't know!

[RandomThoughts @ May 19th 2007 11:52PM]

Crash landed off course? I would imagine most crash landings happen off course. The container is in good shape, but its passengers are of course, still dead. Scotty will be relaunched later on this year, reportedly after undergoing medical testing and training to ensure that he is in fact, still dead.

[John Doe @ May 20th 2007 12:28AM]

I gotta ask. What's the point of putting him in space for a brief time? If you are going to do it...do it right. Put an ounce on an outbound probe destined for the Oort Cloud. Yes even an ounce can have a tremendous impact on the cost of a project but considering how this man and the character he portrayed inspired many an engineer. Small price to pay for tribute.

[Chris @ May 20th 2007 1:18AM]

I admit that I had not read the stories so that I did not know that the flight was always intended to be suborbital. That's because when I read that Scotty's ashes were going into space, I THOUGHT THAT THEY WOULD STAY THERE!!!!! What the hell? Okay, these ashes have been to space. Now they are back. Dispose of them as you will.

[KC @ May 20th 2007 4:16AM]

What a waste of resources to send ashes into space and then bring them back and recover them.

[heapos @ May 20th 2007 9:23AM]

Clearly a big FU to the Carbon Footprint™ generation

[newshutr @ May 20th 2007 10:04AM]

He's still dead Jim.

[Mark @ May 20th 2007 10:06AM]

We're all hurtling through space on planet Earth. If your gonna go to all this trouble, send the ashes to OUTER space!

[strider_mt2k @ May 20th 2007 10:50AM]

Yeah, it would be ironic if by chance you launched the capsule into space and it achieved a state of rest relative to the rest of the universe and everything just kinda passed it by.

You know, because...it wouldn't have gone...anywhere.