A FINAL request of Canadian actor James Doohan will be honored later this year, when a portion of his ashes will be blasted into space. Doohan, who built a huge following among fans of the Star Trek series for his role as chief engineer MONTGOMERY "Scotty" Scott, died on July 20, 2005, from a combination of Alzheimer's and pneumonia.

The bulk of his remains were scattered over Puget Sound in Washington, but two small portions were retained for memorialization in space. On April 28, a seven-gram CONTAINER of Doohan's ashes will be included in a memorial spaceflight service provided by Celestis, a subsidiary of the Houston-based Space Services, Inc. Doohan's remains will be joined by those of more than 200 other individuals, including "Mercury 7" astronaut Gordon Cooper.

The payload, dubbed the "Legacy Flight" by Celestis, will be carried into a suborbital altitude by a rocket launched by UP Aerospace at New Mexico's "Spaceport America," a facility located NEAR the White Sands Missile Range. After achieving its intended altitude, the memorial canister will parachute to Earth and the individual remains will be returned to family members with a commemorative plaque.

Space Flight Ambassador

In a statement posted to the Space Services Web site, Doohan's widow Wende said that her husband was proud to serve as an ambassador for space flight. "[Jimmy] promoted space exploration and travel wherever he went," she wrote. "I can't think of a more fitting send-off than having some of his fans attend this, his final journey." Fans of Doohan are invited to post messages that will be digitized and sent into space with his ashes.

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=0030002DTPNO


**side note** ( If anyone has read the news lately, you will know what I mean!!) I sure HOPE Keith didn't get a hold of "Scotty" !!!!

The Rolling Stones guitarist has told how he snorted his own father's ashes in a drugs binge.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=446543&in_page_id=1773Pretty unique way of spreading your ashes, a lot cheaper than I thought it was going to be as well.

http://www.memorialspaceflights.com/Cremation is a it of a con though, isn't it? The majority of what you get in the tin of ashes is wood ash. (Think about it...)