Scotty's Final Mission

Jane Q. Public writes "According to Ars Technica, the ashes of James Doohan, who played "Scotty" in the original 'Star Trek' series and several movies, were aboard the SpaceX III launch and were lost when the launch vehicle failed." Which totally wouldn't have happened if Scotty was the engineer.

Update: 08/05 00:09 GMT by KD : BoingBoing has a tribute to Doohan from his son.

Comments

Turning in his Somewhat Charred Grave

[segedunum]

Hmmmmm. I thought Scotty's ashes had been lost before:

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/10/2249214

Always multiply your estimates by a factor of 4. Seriously, the advice has done me wonders. People really do think that you're a miracle worker.

Re:Turning in his Somewhat Charred Grave

[SatanicPuppy]

Sadly, I think they were recovered...Which makes this the SECOND time the launch has failed.

Who wants to lay odds on them finding the little charred capsule of ashes and making a third go of it?

Re:Turning in his Somewhat Charred Grave

[yincrash]

Well, last time the rocket crash landed. This time the rocket blew up. Chances of ash survival are probably slim.

Re:Old News?

[SatanicPuppy]

This is the SECOND time its happened. More like deja vu than old news...Even reality has a dupe now and then.

NOT Scotty's "Final Mission"

[FleaPlus]

There's a huge misconception most people seem to have about this story, so I figured I'd repost my comment from the previous SpaceX story:

It's worth noting though that Celestis, the company which offers the service for placing a person's cremated remains on a space launch, only uses a tiny portion of the ashes on a particular launch. From their FAQ:

http://www.memorialspaceflights.com/faq.asp

Why launch only a symbolic portion?

We offer the launch of a symbolic portion of the cremated remains as a memorial service, not final disposition of all the remains, because although dramatic progress is being made by entrepreneurs in reducing launch costs, spaceflight is still quite expensive. By launching a portion we can offer an affordable service, and also can provide performance assurance.

We will arrange for final disposition of the balance of the cremated remains through a sea scattering service, should you so desire.

Space launches are challenging. What if the orbit is not achieved?

In the event that the Celestis Earth Orbit Service spacecraft does not achieve orbit, we will -- at no additional cost -- place a second sample of the cremated remains aboard our next scheduled mission.

Re:I wold be honored none the less

[MythoBeast]

The answer actually lies in your own use of language. Symbolism is the use of pattern matching to make one event mimic another. Pattern matching is the core of our sense of beauty, so these things are inherently beautiful to us.

Superstition involves allowing your behavior to be altered by unprovable connections. We aren't changing our behavior for symbolism any more than necessary to wonder at the entertaining symmetries.