Inaugural ULA Vulcan launch to feature 'Enterprise' tribute to Star Trek creator, actor
A Star Trek tribute mission called "Enterprise Flight" organized by space memorial service company, Celestis Inc., will send family ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, and actor, James "Scotty" Doohan, to space aboard the inaugural flight of United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Vulcan rocket later this year.
The Celestis Memorial Spaceflight payload called "Enterprise Flight" will fly as a secondary payload aboard the first ULA Vulcan rocket to lift of from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The payload will feature 150 capsules carrying the ashes, DNA samples, and messages of clients from around the world.
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The "Enterprise Flight" mission name is symbolic of notable participants Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, and wife, Majel Barrett Roddenberry. Also aboard the mission will be the ashes of Star Trek actor, James “Scotty” Doohan. “We’re very pleased to be fulfilling, with this mission, a promise I made to Majel Barrett Roddenberry in 1997 that one day we would fly her and husband Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry together on a deep space memorial spaceflight,” said Celestis Co-Founder and CEO Charles M. Chafer.
This mission will not be the first time either participant's ashes have made it to space. Some of Rodenberry's ashes were first carried to space among the personal effects of NASA astronaut, James Weatherbee, aboard the space shuttle Columbia in October, 1992. More of his ashes were launched to the cosmos aboard the Celestis Inc., "Founders Flight" mission in 1997 aboard a Pegasus rocket in 1997.
Some of actor James Doohan's ashes were flown to space aboard another Celestis Memorial Spaceflight in 2012 as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It's also been reported that entrepreneur, Richard Garriot, smuggled a few small samplings of the ashes aboard the International Space Station during his 12-day stay as a private spaceflight participant in 2008.
The Celestis Inc. "Enterprise Flight" mission will be memorable for flying Roddenberry accompanied by his wife and Doohan aboard the very first Vulcan rocket, named after the fictional Star Trek extraterrestrial humanoid species. "What a fitting tribute to the Roddenberry family and the Star Trek fans to be a part of the maiden flight of Vulcan, our next-generation rocket,” said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Star Trek creator, actor ashes to be launched into space on memorial mission