The cremated remains of Star Trek's "Scotty" (aka James Doohan), Gemini 5 astronaut Gordon Cooper and 200 others are set for take off today from Spaceport America, a rocket launch pad in Upham, New Mexico.
Eric Knight, co-founder of UP Aerospace, the Conneticut-based company behind the event, says his crew is planning on a six-hour launch period, starting at 7 am PST. They'll be hanging out until the weather and all other launch details are spot on. (Apparently, the winds are best in the morning.)
Wired News should hear from Knight once the launch happens and his imaging people upload pics for the Underwire.
The UP Aerospace crew is hoping for better luck today than last September, when the company crashed a Spaceloft XL rocket into the desert dirt nine seconds after liftoff. (The cause? Faulty fin design, say company execs and engineers.)
For this launch, Aerospace is using a Spaceloft SL-2 rocket, with a fourth fin that should improve stability and keep the space-traveling deceased above ground.
Oh, and count this as a commercial space event: Family members and friends paid $495 to add ashes of their someone special to the star-studded payload.
Image: Eric Knight, CEO of UP Aerospace, at the fledgling Spaceport (pretty much a 100-foot by 25-foot concrete slab). (Courtesy of Aerospace.)
