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.

Re:Going out...

[thedistrict]

Too bad he didn't make it to space though. Woulda been a fitting tribute. It's ironic that he'd have his ashes destroyed as the ship exploded after being immortalized for saving ships from said explosions.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Doohan

[querist]

In a strange way, I see it as a fitting end to Mr. Doohan's physical form. He inspired countless young people to pursue careers in the sciences, and then, even after leaving this world, continues to inspire.

I know that the body is not the person, and I would like to think that his spirit lives on. At least in this way he can be thought of as being everywhere. Scotty was a fictional character, but through that character James Doohan inspired so many people to believe in themselves.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Doohan. You will be missed, but never forgotten.

Gordon "Gordo" Cooper

[nbvb]

It is absolutely depressing to me that everyone shows some concern over the ashes of an ACTOR, but ignores the fact that a TRUE SPACE HERO (Gordo Cooper), one of the Mercury 7, was onboard. .... yikes.

Nah.

[jd]

Suspended Animation offers better recovery possibilities, especially now the latest suspend-to-disk has got into the kernel.

RIP James Doohan

[gilbertopb]

Well, I hope he's have a final mission anyways. The current enginner may be afraid on giving excuses to Scotty personaly. Gordon Cooper, astronaut from the original Mercury 7 was there too. Now, they are anywhere, "lost in space" Will... (sorry bad english).

Re:Going out...

[Iamthecheese]

I think being lost in one of mankind's first strugles of exploration is a fine tribute. I wish as much for my own ashes.

Anonymous Coward

[Anonymous Coward]

I do not have confidence in Space-X, and not just because they are 0-3. Munsk gave a speech shortly after the blowup, and stressed that he would "not skip a beat in execution".

To me, his statement says that schedule is more important than safety. That the next flights will NOT be delayed to double-and-triple check everything, that there will NOT be additional company-wide training in safety, care, and making sure every little thing goes correct.

How many blowups before we are allowed to say that his stated goal of ten-times the existing reliability has failed?

Re:Gordon "Gordo" Cooper

[gilbertopb]

I agree with you, but I have gone faraway with "Scotty" and the other actors interpretation. And as a software developer, "Scotty" always was a inspiration point where look to a good quality job. Or to find something that solved the problem, with or without physics laws (computer users ignore the most basic principles...)

Re:Turning in his Somewhat Charred Grave

[courtarro]

Chances of ash survival are probably slim.

Since they're already the products of combustion, it's pretty likely the ashes survived. Unfortunately, they'd probably be pretty tough to find.

Re:Gordon "Gordo" Cooper

[King_TJ]

I think you make a valid point. Gordo Cooper is certainly worthy of mention, if someone is going to cover this story.

But "absolutely depressing"? I don't come away with that, myself. Star Trek was a HUGELY popular TV show, that thrived against all odds at the time. For a while there, props were literally being created from stuff dug out of garbage dumpsters, due to a lack of funds. Its creator had a real vision and message of hope to express. It wasn't just another crappy sit-com cranked out to make a buck or two. It,arguably, did more to spark people's imaginations about the possibilities for space travel than anything else at the time. I can't prove it, but I sure would't be at all surprised to find that many of NASA's current and former employees would list Star Trek as one of their inspirations growing up.

They wanted to save him but -

[RevWaldo]

"NO! You'll flood the whole compartment!"
"He'll die in there!"
"Elon! He's dead already.."


James Doohan - RIP

WTF, over!?!

[guzziguy]

Launch 1: Failure Launch 2: Failure At this point, who the hell decided that "third time's the charm" and it would be a good idea to load it up with pricey satellites and irreplaceable human relics? Lunch 3: Spectacular Failure Here's an idea: how about we let Space X get at least ONE successful test launch under their belt before we start entrusting them with our payload?

Re:Gordon "Gordo" Cooper

[Anonymous Coward]

James Doohan wasn't just an actor, he was veteran of the Normandy landing, serving as an officer in the Canadian army. Anybody who stormed ashore at Normandy is a true HERO.

Re:Not enough power

[commandlinegamer]

Well, everyone has two atoms of Julius Caesar. Might take a few years, but eventually, we'll all have Scotty too.

Re:Going out...

[Gruff1002]

I have always found it odd that through out our mortal life we continually leave behind residue that is flushed, exfoliated, sloughed and sweated off, laundered away down the drain, never to be seen again, that's the POINT. Then after we have expired, suddenly our remains are rendered holy and we go to great lengths to bring them to a meaningful place and scatter them just so. I know this all has to do with various religious beliefs, its just strange.