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Someone snuck James Doohan’s ashes onto the International Space Station
Scotty has secretly been orbiting Earth for years.
James Doohan, known to sci-fi fans everywhere as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, engineer of the starship Enterprise, left a spectacular if difficult wish after he passed away in 2005. The original Star Trek cast member wanted a portion of his ashes left on the International Space Station.
His family was able to get some of his ashes aboard SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket in 2008, but it, unfortunately, failed to reach orbit. Four years later, his ashes did make it to space on another SpaceX rocket, the Falcon 9.
We now know that Doohan's ultimate request — that his ashes make it to space and stay there on the ISS — was granted 12 years ago in secret.
According to The Times of London, Doohan's family could not officially transport James' ashes to the space station so they hatched a plan with multi-millionaire video game developer Richard Garriott to smuggle them into orbit. The son of an astronaut, Garriott is one of only a few private citizens who have gone to space — and he paid $30 million for the trip!
Garriott hid James Doohan's ashes, along with a laminated photograph, under the floor of the space station's Columbus module.
"What he did was touching — it meant so much to me, so much to my family and it would have meant so much to my dad," said Chris Doohan.
It is indeed a fitting resting place for one of the most recognizable actors in all of television science fiction.
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18 Comments
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. My addend to this, Fool me thrice, all bets are off!!!
