Top 10 Strange Objects Sent into Space
Star Trek Ashes
James Doohan, who played Scotty on the original Star Trek television series (and in seven big-screen Star Trek films), had it rough. All he wanted was for his ashes to be shot into space, a process that seems simpler than it actually is. In May 2007, after a brief flight in suborbital space on the back of a private rocket, the ashes crashed down to the New Mexico desert. A year later, as part of another attempt to send his remains into the cosmos, a rocket carrying them exploded over the Pacific Ocean. Doohan was just trying to follow in the footsteps of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who had his ashes shot into space (alongside those of Timothy Leary's) in 1997 and also had a tiny portion of his remains placed aboard Columbia mission STS-52 in 1992.