At long last James Doohan’s final wish is coming to a good end. Coming almost two years after his death, due to delays caused by malfunctions, technical problems, inclement weather and other holdups that would make Scotty pull his engineer’s hair out, if all goes according to plan, Jimmy’s ashes will finally be rocketed into space along with those of Apollo 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper and 200 others.
To quote a song from the “Enterprise” Star Trek series, “It’s been a long road, getting from there to here,” but it is one that looks like will finally come to pass for the man who spent 40 years pretending to be a space adventurer. He need not pretend any longer after today.
The spacecraft carrying Doohan’s cremated remains will launch into space today, Saturday – April 26, 2007 from Spaceport America’s commercial launching facilities in Upham, New Mexico, located in the southern portion of the State.
Accompanying the remains will be a CD with over 11,000 letters and notes from fans of the actor and NASA spokesperson who brought the fabled engineer, Montgomery Scott, of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 and 1701-A to life and became the inspiration for two generations of rocket scientists and NASA space engineers. I am thrilled to be one of the 11,000 fans who sent my final farewell to this legendary man.
Jimmy Doohan died in July 2005, at age 85. He follows in the footsteps of Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, whose remains were rocketed into space back in 1997.
So long Jimmy and boldly go into that Final Frontier.
