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 Two years after the death of Star Trek actor James Doohan (Cheif Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott), his ashes have touched the stars. Sharing a rocket with the late NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper and 198 others, UP Aerospace launched a few grams of Doohan's cremated remains aboard a suborbital rocket at 8:56 AM MST. Wende Doohan and Suzan Cooper fired the rocket to an altitude of 72 miles (115 kilometers). The blurry boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space is generally considered to be around 62 miles (100 kilometers).
This launch was the first of many planned launches from New Mexico's new spaceport. Because this was a suborbital flight, the rocket did not complete a full orbit of the Earth and came down as planned in the White Sands Missile Range in immediately to the east. The capsules containing the ashes of Doohan and the others will be recovered and returned to their loved ones, along with a plaque commemorating the flight. 
The rocket carrying the remains of James Doohan, Gordon Cooper, and 198 others lifts off from its New Mexico launch site.
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James Montgomery Doohan was born on March 3, 1920 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was the youngest of four children and joined the Royal Canadian Artillery at the start of World War II. His first combat assignment was the invasion of Normandy, France - better known as D-Day. Doohan was shot six times during the assault, four in the leg, once in the chest, and once in the hand. His middle right finger was amputated following the injury, something that Doohan successfully concealed through most of his acting career. He later went on to become a pilot for the Canadian military, earning the label as "the craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Forces" due to his daring style and antics.Dissapointed with the quality of radio drama, Doohan privately studied Shakespeare and first appeared on CBC radio in 1946. For several years he worked between Toronto and New York City, playing some 400 roles in radio and television each, including Timber Tom in the Canadian version of Howdy Doody (at the same time, William Shatner was playing Buffalo Bob in the American version). He appeared in Flight into Danger, The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Bewitched, Fantasy Island, and Bonanza. Doohan had a gift for using foreign accents, which came to life when he auditioned for the role of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry asked Doohan which he prefered, to which Doohan replied "If you're going to have an engineer, you'd better make him Scottish." Initially meant as a semi-regular cast member, Cheif Engineer Scott soon rose to near the level of Captain Kirk, Mister Spock, and Doctor McCoy. Doohan often said that "Scotty is 99% James Doohan, and 1% accent." After the cancellation of the live-action Star Trek, Doohan went on to voice his character in the animated version of the series, as well as using his vocal talents to voice the majority of the male guest spots. Realizing that he would forever be typecast as a science fiction engineer, Doohan embraced the fandom and made numerous appearances at conventions and other events to support himself and his family. When Star Trek made its way onto the silver screen, Doohan again used his vocal talents to create the Klingon and Vulcan spoken languages. He would later make a guest appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and despite his desire to continue acting, he was permanently and woefully typecast out of most roles. In his later life Doohan suffered from Parkinson's disease, diabetes, and lung fibrosis, and in 2004 he was disagnosed with Alzheimer's. He died on July 20, 2005, with his wife Wende Doohan and long time friend and agent Steve Stevens at his side. Many prominent engineers have cited Doohan's performace as Scotty as their inspiration for entering their fields, including NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong. Doohan's ashes were accompanied on the UP Aerospace rocket with a CD carrying over 11,000 condolences and fan notes. Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr., was born on March 6, 1927, in Shawnee, Oklahoma, United States. He was a Life Scout in the Boy Scouts of America and served two years in the Marine Corps before studying three years at the University of Hawai'i and entering the United States Army's as a Lieutenant. Cooper transferred to the Air Force and recieved flight training at Perrin Air Force Base in Texas and Williams Air Force Base in Arizona. He flew for four years in Germany starting in 1950 and upon his return to the United States served as a test pilot for the F-102A and F-106B. In 1959, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration launched Project Mercury, the first US effort to put a man into space. Cooper was selected from a field of 109 potential astronauts to become part of the Mercury Seven. Following the succesful launch of Alan Sheppard, Cooper served as the capsule communicator for John Glenn's first orbital spaceflight in Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7) and Scott Carpenter's flight on Mercury-Atlas 7 (Aurora 7), and as the backup pilot for Wally Schirra in Mercury-Atlas 8 (Sigma 7). Cooper himself finally was launched into space on May 15, 1963, aboard the Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7). He orbited the Earth 22 times and logged more time in space than all five previous Mercury astronauts combined – 34 hours, 19 minutes and 49 seconds, traveling 546,167 miles (878,971 km) at 17,547 mph (28,239 km/h). He also gained the distinction of becoming the first American astronaut to sleep not only in orbit, but also on the launch pad during a countdown. This was the last Mercury mission and the last time a NASA astronaut would fly solo. Two years later, Cooper flew as command pilot of Gemini 5 on an eight-day, 120-orbit mission with Pete Conrad. The two astronauts established a new space endurance record of nearly 191 hours (8 days), proving that astronauts could survive in space for the length of time necessary to go from the Earth to the moon and back. Cooper was the first astronaut to make a second orbital flight, and later served as backup command pilot for Gemini 12 and backup commander of Apollo 10. Cooper retired from NASA and the Air Force in 1970 as a full Colonel, having flown 222 hours in space. After his retirement from NASA, Cooper served on many corporate boards in fields ranging from high performance boat design to energy, construction, and aircraft design. He also worked for The Walt Disney Company as a vice-president for research and development for Epcot in the 1970. In his later years he developed Parkinson's disease and died in his home in California on October 4, 2004. During his life, Cooper received numerous awards, including the Air Force Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf clusters, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, the Collier Trophy, the Harmon Trophy, the DeMolay Legion of Honor, the John F. Kennedy Trophy, the Iven C. Kincheloe Award, the University of Hawaii Regents Medal, and the Columbus Medal. He was a Master Mason (member of Carbondale Lodge 82 in Carbondale, Colorado) and a 33rd Degree Scottish Rite Mason. Discuss: TrekUnited Forum UPDATE - Star Trek.com has posted a video of the launch, you can view it here.
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