Remember Scotty from Star Trek? The one who could be required to teleport with “Send me, Scotty”? As it turns out, the actor who plays it lives for 12 years In your own way On board a space station.
James Dohan played the role of Scottie on the show Star Trek From 1966 to 1969, and then also in several cinematic adaptations. He was one of the most iconic characters among the crew of the Enterprise in the 21st century, under Captain Kirk. Dohan passed away in 2005 at the age of 85. As his son Chris says, Dohan had three interests: space, science, and trains, and he always dreamed of going to outer space.
The Scotty family obeyed
The family of the deceased decided to fulfill his dream. In 2007, some of its ashes briefly entered space during Suborbital flight. Then the cargo fell freely on the surface of the Earth, where it was found three weeks later.
In 2008, a bit of Dohan’s ashes reached the summit of the Falcon-1 space-bound rocket. However, the missile did not function properly until a few minutes after takeoff and did not finally reach orbit. Here, however, it should be noted that in 2012, another portion of Dohan’s ashes arrived in space on board. Falcon 9Till the end SpaceX Fulfill the family’s wish.
Now it turns out that Scotty works, too ISS
How The Times reportsSome of Dohan’s remains have been orbiting Earth on the International Space Station since 2008. Interestingly, the actor’s ashes did not end up legally, and until recently only a few people knew everything.
It turns out that after the failed launch of the Falcon-1, the Doohan family called Richard Garriott, a billionaire and businessman who had – just a few days later – one of the first Space tourists Travel aboard the International Space Station to spend 12 days there.
Although Garriott was already in quarantine at a space center in Kazakhstan, they managed to transport some of Doohan’s ashes in time.
Here, however, the stairs are just beginning. As reported by The Times, Garriott had somehow to smuggle the ashes to the space station, and the full load carrying the astronauts was carefully checked before departure.
Just before takeoff, Garriott printed three Doohan cards with a picture, sprinkled them with ashes, and then wrapped them all. He placed the prepared cards between the pages of the file with the documents that he would have taken with him.
In order not to cause additional trouble and friction between space agencies, Garriot eventually took cards with him on the condition that he ask the actor’s family not to mention them publicly.
As Dohan’s son said in an interview with The Times, 12 years after the incident, it looks like it can be mentioned. What happened to the cards? One of them returned to the family with Garriot, the other launched it into space and may have burned into the atmosphere long ago, and the third was aboard the space station under one of the floorplates of the Columbus unit.
Given that Garryot placed it there in 2008, it’s safe to say that Scottie has actually flown around the Earth more than 70,000 times, covering 2.7 billion kilometers.
Feature image by Rob Lavers LRPS (Shutterstock.com)
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