Doohan Space Memorial

[Niemz]

07.20.2006
Doohan Space Memorial October 20-21 in New Mexico

In time for the one-year anniversary of the passing of James Doohan, Space Services Inc. (SSI) has announced that a memorial spaceflight carrying a portion of his cremated remains will be launched October 21 from a New Mexico spaceport, with a public service held the day before.

SSI, operating under the name Celestis Inc., has arranged to attach modules containing the ashes of the beloved Star Trek actor to a SpaceLoft XL rocket scheduled to lift off from Spaceport America, a new launching facility near Las Cruces, N.M., on that October date.

Dubbed "The Legacy Flight," this journey will also include memorializations of American astronaut L. Gordon Cooper, and Original Series writer/director/producer John Meredyth Lucas.

The Legacy Flight does not replace the Explorers Flight, which has been delayed since late last year. Rather, Legacy is being launched as an additional memorial spaceflight, as a courtesy by Celestis to the families of the deceased whose plans have been on hold. The Explorers Flight has been and still is set to take place aboard a Falcon 1 rocket, but that vehicle has yet to achieve a successful test launch. Currently the Explorers Flight is projected to take place in the first three months of 2007, either from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California or from the Marshall Islands.

While the Explorers Flight will lift participants' remains into orbit for an indeterminate number of years — after which they will burn up in the atmosphere — the New Mexico launch is "Earth-Return," designed to take the capsules into zero-gravity space briefly and return them safely to Earth, thus symbolically attaining astronaut status for the participants. The capsules will be returned to the families as a keepsake, mounted on a plaque commemorating the voyage.

The Legacy Flight will coincide with the second annual X Prize Cup, an international festival of spaceflight presented by the X Prize Foundation, headed by space entrepreneur Peter Diamandis.

A public memorial service honoring Doohan, Lucas, Cooper and all of the Legacy participants will be held the day before, October 20, at a location near the launch site. The public is invited, and Doohan's widow, Wende, will be present. Details are forthcoming and will be posted on the new Legacy Flight update page.

Such a memorial spaceflight was held by SSI for the late Gene Roddenberry in 1997, six years after he died.

Fans can post tribute messages for Doohan at this link. These messages will be put on disc and included with the payload on the Explorers Flight rather than the Legacy Flight, so that they can accompany the ashes in orbit for an extended period of time.

Doohan died July 20, 2005, at age 85 from pneumonia complicated by Alzheimer's disease.

The Canadian-born actor portrayed "Montgomery Scott," the Aberdeen-accented engineer of the Starship Enterprise who always kept his precious warp engines purring through every interstellar crisis.

Doohan's date of birth and date of death, taken together, seem poetic. His birthday, March 3, coincides with that of inventor Alexander Graham Bell. July 20 is the anniversary of mankind's first steps on another world, as Neil Armstrong achieved that "giant leap" on the Moon in 1969.

[earthcrusher]

interesting read there

[Niemz]

James 'Scotty' Doohan's Ashes Lost in New Mexico Mountains.

The search for the UP Aerospace payload of experiments and the cremated remains of some 200 people — including "Scotty" of Star Trek fame, as well as pioneering NASA Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper — continues within the rugged New Mexico mountain landscape.

After a successful blastoff from New Mexico's Spaceport America on April 28th, the UP Aerospace SpaceLoft XL rocket and its payload nosed into space on a suborbital trajectory.

As part of launch operations, the rocket was tracked by specialists at the neighboring White Sands Missile Range.

While all went well with the flight, the rocket components parachuted into rough-and-tumble terrain. Repeated searches within the landing zone have come up empty.

Jerry Larson, president of UP Aerospace, has told me that the general location of the rocket hardware is known within some 1,300 feet (400 meters) or so.

But given the dense vegetation on the side of the mountain being searched, along with equipment available to the search team, pinpointing the exact locale has proven a tough assignment.

Yet another trip up on the mountain is slated next week, Larson said.

Joining the search this time is the manufacturer of the transmitters onboard the rocket gear. He'll be bringing high — end tracking gear and years of expertise in locating objects in mountain terrain environments.

[Niemz]

05.14.2007
Doohan Memorial Spaceflight: Full Report from New Mexico

Wende Doohan Issues Statement on Recovery Effort
"I can hear Scotty now ... 'I'm an engineer, not a navigator!'"

First, the latest news out of New Mexico: "Scotty" is not "lost" as some news reports would have you believe. Officials know that the rocket carrying the ashes of James Doohan and 201 others landed within the intended target zone, but in the two weeks since flight, efforts to recover the payload have been hampered by a number of conditions.

The target zone — stipulated by the military to minimize the risk of the rocket landing in a populated area should it go awry — is a mountainous region at the White Sands Missile Range (just east of Spaceport America). It is not accessible by foot or by vehicle, but only by helicopter, and severe weather since the launch has allowed limited opportunities for such excursions. (It's extremely fortunate that the weather cooperated the way it did for the launch, as thunderstorms swept into the area later that day. There have also been tornadoes and floods in the past two weeks.)

The "pings" from the rocket's four recovery beacons have been heard, but the signals have been bouncing off the rugged terrain, so pinpointing the exact origin has been difficult. This week the manufacturer of those transmitters will be flying in with specialized equipment to better home in on those pings. Officials are confident the payload will be found this week. Upon retrieval, the capsules containing the cremated remains of each memorialized participant will be mounted on a plaque by Celestis, the memorial spaceflight service, and returned to the families.

Wende Doohan, Jimmy's widow, has issued a statement through Space Services Inc., the parent company of Celestis:

"I have the utmost faith in Jerry Larson and UP Aerospace, and appreciate all that they are doing to expedite the recovery of the rocket. I was very glad to hear that the transmitters are still 'talking,' which should help in finding the rocket needle in the White Sands haystack. This cannot be an easy task. A little cooperation from the weather would be nice, as well as a couple of trained mountain goats to handle the terrain.

"My thanks to Charlie Chafer and Space Services for ensuring integrity of the participants on board. This may be a difficult time for some people, but I have read the biography statements on many of the participants and recognize their sense of adventure, realizing that this is only part of that journey. It's all a learning process from launch through recovery, and I know Jimmy would be proud to participate in any event that helped us achieve frequent and regular space travel.

"I don't believe the rocket is really lost anyway. Jimmy and Col. [Gordon] Cooper are just taking the scenic route home — and as real men, they didn't ask for directions. As well as all the science experiments on board, somebody should have packed a map. I can just hear Scotty now, 'I dinna know where on Earth we are — I'm an engineer, not a navigator!'


Watch www.upaerospace.com for the latest official updates from UP Aerospace, the launch provider also responsible for the recovery. They just posted a photo of the mountainous "recovery zone." Science writer Leonard David has also been regularly posting updates at his LiveScience.com blog, with statements from UP president Jerry Larson.

Background

To recap the story previously covered in a breaking news report, the memorial spaceflight carrying the ashes of James Doohan and 201 others successfully lifted off on Saturday, April 28, and entered space for several minutes before parachuting back to Earth. It was a fulfillment of Jimmy's wish to follow in the footsteps of Gene Roddenberry — who was similarly memorialized almost exactly 10 years prior — and finally, really fly into the final frontier, if only symbolically.

The Saturday launch was the culmination of two days of activities in southern New Mexico. It was exhausting for all involved because, not only was the weekend intrinsically emotional, but things got started very early each morning, and the driving times between locations ranged from one to two hours.

Wende Doohan was the most prominent VIP guest of the event, and the most sought-after interviewee by the press. Suzan Cooper — widow of L. Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, who died in 2004 — was also a very important part of the program. Besides their place of honor in the Friday memorial service, Wende and Suzan together pushed the button that fired the rocket on Saturday when the countdown reached zero.

(It's interesting to note — as was mentioned in the Friday memorial service — that both Doohan and Cooper passed away on anniversaries of significant space program landmarks. Cooper died on October 4, the anniversary of the flight of Sputnik, the first manmade object to enter space. Doohan died on July 20, the anniversary of mankind's first steps on the Moon. On a side note, October 4 was named Gene Roddenberry Day in nearby El Paso in 2002.)

Another honoree in the memorial spaceflight was John Meredyth Lucas, a major creative force in the Original Series. He was the only person to both write and direct the same episode of TOS, that being "Elaan of Troyius." He also wrote or directed several other episodes, and served as producer during the second season. Lucas died October 19, 2002, at age 83, shortly after completing his book, "Eighty Odd Years in Hollywood." His daughter, Victoria Lucas — an independent feature film producer — drove out from Tucson, Arizona, to attend the memorial and launch.

Doohan, Cooper and Lucas were three of 202 participants from all around the world and all walks of life who had a symbolic portion of their cremated remains — either one gram or seven grams — on the "Legacy Flight." They were originally scheduled for another mission, the "Explorers Flight," intended to put their ashes into semi-permanent orbit around the Earth (the payload would, after a number of years, eventually lose its orbit and burn up in the atmosphere). For that mission, Celestis contracted with Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) to add the memorial payload to a satellite launch. However, SpaceX experienced several test launch failures with its Falcon I rocket, which they are still addressing. When UP Aerospace announced it would fly its SpaceLoft XL rocket at the "X Prize Cup" at Spaceport America in October 2006, Celestis then decided to grant the Explorers Flight families an additional launch while waiting for SpaceX to perfect their vehicle. However, a test flight by UP in September 2006 also ended in failure, and the October launch had to be scrubbed. Upon investigation, the anomaly on that test flight proved to be fairly simple, and only required a redesign of the tail fin on the 20-foot-long SpaceLoft rocket. The Explorers Flight is still being planned for later this year, and will include the original participants plus at least 100 more.

[Niemz]

First-hand account

The weekend in New Mexico started on Thursday, April 26, when the Legacy Flight families arrived in Las Cruces to check in with Celestis, and to get a good night's sleep before the itinerary began early the next morning.

The first thing on the agenda Friday morning was a tour of the launch pad at Spaceport America. Things had to get started earlier than originally planned, because Celestis discovered it would take two hours for a large bus to make the trek across the desert dirt roads to the spaceport (they had allotted one hour, but they were smart enough to do a test run in advance), and private cars were not allowed ... because frankly, it's too easy to get lost.

After departing from the stadium parking lot at New Mexico State University, and stopping briefly at one of New Mexico's "award-winning" rest areas (it's what the sign said!), we made the turn-off toward Upham, and passed over a cattle guard to enter the long dirt path to Spaceport America (with tiny little signs pointing the way). Those of us on the bus were quite fascinated by the desert landscape — with an interesting variety of life including jackrabbits, coyotes, and even packs of wild horses — and it was noted among us that we were perhaps making history. We could be the last large group of people to traverse this trail before the road to Spaceport America is paved.

Spaceport America recently had funding approved by the voters of Doña Ana County, who passed a sales tax increase earlier the same month. Plus, the state signed a deal with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic to make it their headquarters starting in 2009 or 2010, which will involve $27.5 million in lease money over 20 years. So construction will start soon on hangars, a terminal, and a 10,000-foot runway, where Virgin will launch trips into space for paying tourists (presumably on a ship named the V.S.S. Enterprise).

But right now all there is to Spaceport America is a 100-by-25-foot concrete launch pad, and a couple of temporary trailers to serve as launch control, in the middle of a remote desert. (See "Launch Pad Tour" photo gallery at left.)

Even though the rocket was only 20 feet long — mounted on a "launch rail" roughly 50 feet long — looking almost like a model rocket in comparison to anything you'd see at Cape Canaveral — there was still something momentous about being that close to a vehicle bound for space. Especially with the emotional resonance of knowing that James Doohan is, symbolically speaking, aboard that vehicle. The fact was evident even on the exterior of rocket, because the nosecone bore about 300 signatures of fans from a Star Trek convention held in Jimmy's home state of Washington, on the 40th anniversary of the show's first airing. (Marc B. Lee explains this at the end of our "Launch Day" video at left, and you can see close-ups of the signatures in the first photo gallery.)

After getting a good look at the rocket and its surroundings, our particular bus contingent — which included press — headed back to the launch control trailer, where Wende Doohan got a crash course on how to fire the rocket. Jerry Larson, president and chief technical officer of UP Aerospace, demonstrated to Wende how the arming sequence worked, because she — along with Suzan Cooper (who had not arrived yet) — would be flipping the switch at T-minus-zero. Press people crowded into the trailer to watch and document this (especially the BBC!), because press access to the trailer during the actual launch would be strictly limited.

As Wende continued to be pulled aside for interviews, time was becoming a real concern, because the memorial was scheduled to start at 3:00, and we had a two-hour bus ride back to Las Cruces, and then an hour drive to Alamogordo! Well, with all the Celestis officials, plus Wende, plus other dais speakers, plus most of the press on our bus, it wasn't likely the memorial could start without us! So on the trip back, Celestis chief Charlie Chafer — once he got a cellphone signal — worked things out to delay the service.

But there was another pressing time factor: The Pentagon had approved a military jet flyover at 4:00 sharp, in tribute to Gordon Cooper. And when the military has a timeframe, they stick to it!

Well, once we got back to Las Cruces we all quickly went to our rooms to change (we couldn't wear our good clothes to the desert!), and then we all flew in our individual rental cars toward Alamogordo, the location of the New Mexico Museum of Space History, where the memorial was taking place. Fortunately, everyone was equally running late, but unfortunately, the clock was ticking on the flyover. Somehow, General David Goldfein from Holloman Air Force Base — one of the dais speakers — managed to delay the flyover 15 minutes. And Charlie Chafer rearranged the memorial schedule to accommodate.

The Space Museum sits atop a hill above Alamogordo, providing the town with its most striking visual landmark. It was a beautiful day, but it was breezy to say the least (as the wind noise in our video from the memorial will attest).

The flyover by four T-38s was a classic "Missing Man" formation often performed at funerals of military officers. The maneuver basically involves one of the four jets peeling away from the others as they continue on toward the horizon, absent their "missing man." It was impressive, if quick. But what made it more striking for some of us was, the flyover had been designated as a tribute specifically for Cooper, but in General Goldfein's remarks, he also named Doohan. Unexpected, and heartwarming! (See both the memorial video and the photo gallery.)

Most of the memorial itinerary was devoted to honoring Cooper and Doohan, but the other 200 Legacy Flight participants were also recognized when their names were read by grade school children from the Alamogordo Boys & Girls Club. Other speakers included officials from the Museum, the state of New Mexico and UP Aerospace. French astronaut Jean-Loup J.M. Chrétien, the first Western European in space who flew on Space Shuttle Atlantis, gave the keynote address.

Paying specific tribute to Jimmy Doohan was Marc B. Lee, dressed very stylishly (putting some of us to shame!), in a moving speech about the virtues and glories of geekdom. He then introduced Wende, whose talk can be seen in its entirety in the memorial video.

In this speech she explained why she was wearing a brown bomber jacket all weekend: Just a week prior, the Doohan family had suffered another loss. Paul Pritchard, master sergeant of the Air Force Reserve Command — the husband of Jimmy's eldest child, Larkin (and thus, Wende's stepson-in-law) — died a week earlier after a short battle with cancer. She was wearing his flight jacket to the launch in tribute to him. "He and Jimmy are together

[Niemz]

Earlier in the day, on the bus, she also told us why her and Jimmy's seven-year-old daughter Sarah did not come along to New Mexico. Wende first joked, "Can you imagine dealing with a seven-year-old on a trip like this?" (referring to the long bus ride). But more seriously, she said that Sarah had just gone through a family funeral, and another memorial so soon would have been too hard on her.

And then yours truly, at the behest of Space Services, had a part in the program on behalf of STARTREK.COM. David Redthingy had already planned to do a special "Trek Life" strip for the site to appear that weekend, and then we'd gotten the idea to turn it into a plaque to present to Wende. The inscription read, "Presented to Wende Doohan, From your friends at STARTREK.COM on behalf of Jimmy's fans everywhere, April 27, 2007." (You can see the plaque in the memorial photo gallery, and you can see the strip at this link. You can also download it as a desktop at this link.)

I don't know who started losing it first, me or Wende — I suspect it was me — but I could see the tears welling up in her eyes, when she joined me at the podium, as I was speaking. It was not my plan to get emotional, or to let my voice crack, but I did hope to say something poignant enough to be worthy of the memory of Jimmy Doohan that all of us fans have — those of us lucky enough to have seen him on TV and in the movies, and those of us lucky enough to have met him. I hope I did the fans' sentiments justice. And many thanks to David Redthingy for creating such a moving tribute.

Inside the space museum, a special display of Star Trek items was put together for the occasion, with contributions from such individuals as David C. Fein, Diana Hudson and Alamogordo's own James Gossett, who lent his Doohan-signed copy of the script for "Relics." Even CBS Consumer Products donated a few things! Cathy Harper, the museum's marketing and public relations director, gets credit for organizing the display.

No one could stay at the post-memorial reception too late, because we were due to gather again at 5:00 the next morning in yet another New Mexico town. What was worrisome about the drive back to Las Cruces was, we could see thunderstorms approaching.

But in the pre-dawn hours on Saturday, the skies seemed clear. A pre-launch briefing was held for families, press and other spectators at Hatch High School in Hatch, N.M. (45 minutes from Las Cruces), the town closest to the turnoff toward the spaceport. At that briefing, Charlie Chafer cautioned that three things could happen, two of which we wouldn't like: a successful launch; a delay or scrub; or a mission failure. And he reiterated his mantra as an entrepreneur: "Space is hard." The mayor of Hatch, Judd Nord**e, warned us to watch out for the desert critters, the thorny brush, and the anthills. Bill Heiden of UP Aerospace spelled out the technical expectations of the launch.

It was a much bigger crowd on Saturday than Friday, requiring a total of nine buses (compared to four). And we set out in the dark, crossing over the Rio Grande toward the interstate, and taking the Upham exit back to that dirt road. The trip was way more dusty this time because of the number of vehicles moving in close proximity, which was not pleasant. But some, including Wende and Suzan, seemed to sleep through it just fine.

It was daylight by the time we arrived at the viewing area, about 7:30, an hour before the scheduled launch time. A tent had been erected to provide shelter from the sun, which only a few made use of during the morning, and there were stands for coffee, water and burritos. About a third of the crowd was press, and they were so occupied with setting up their equipment that they hardly patronized the amenities.

We had to learn through word of mouth exactly where we needed to point our cameras or binoculars. The launch pad was about three miles away, and it wasn't evident where we were supposed to look. We learned to look for "the white spot" (was that the launch trailer? — not sure), then find the tower just to the left of that, then find the smaller tower at an angle to the left of that. That was the launch rail. Okay, got it.

Wende and Suzan were at the viewing site greeting people and granting yet more interviews, but they had to be pulled away in short order to get in the jeep and head toward the control center to push the launch button.

Eight-thirty rolled around, and we were hearing the communications from the control center through the P.A. system in the tent, similar to what mission control at NASA sounds like. We were prepared to be there for hours, but things got rolling right away! (We learned later that earlier that morning, weather balloons were sent out to test conditions. The first two signaled a scrub, but a third one yielded a go. They didn't dare put out a fourth.)

Launch control started countdown procedures, but then they stopped — someone was spotted in the "hazard zone," and Security had to go and get them out. That 25-minute delay was perfectly fine, though, because it gave us more of a chance to get our bearings — to figure out where we were going to stand without getting in other people's way, and for the press, to better prepare to capture a split-second event.

And it was a split-second event. Being a lightweight rocket, that sucker goes off fast! (No doubt you've seen the video already.)

It quickly disappeared into the morning sky, and we waited to hear from launch control whether or not it actually reached space. The mood was tense for some, because the company's last flight in September didn't make it.

But in the interval, immediately after blastoff, the moment was remarkably heady — speaking for pretty much everyone there. Personally, I was choked up and nearly brought to tears. This, for a 20-foot rocket launched three miles away, viewing it through a video camera.

But perhaps it's better to hear from one of the family members: "I had come expecting to be moved and excited. I had no idea how powerful the emotions were," Victoria Lucas told us later. "When they started the countdown, I felt my father's presence so strongly, because he was a space fanatic. Every launch — it didn't matter whether it was a space shuttle, whether it was Mercury, going to the Moon, anything — he was there. He was fascinated by space, and just loved space and science fiction.

"When the countdown started going," she continued, "I felt a rush of emotion that wasn't grief — it was exultation. As that rocket started its launch, I felt so strongly that he was on board that ship with Jimmy Doohan, with all the other people who were there, going up into space just exactly the way he wanted to go, and it was so moving and so powerful. It was tremendous! I had no idea."

Victoria also said that she looked around at the expressions on other people's faces, and they were almost entirely "rapturous."

The announcement from the P.A. that the rocket did achieve space seemed a bit anticlimactic to the launch itself, but people were very gratified to hear that nonetheless.

As you can see in the "Launch Day" video at left, the people from launch control soon came back to the viewing area to report on what happened, holding an impromptu press conference at the tent. They were all very happy, including officials from the state of New Mexico, who can now claim the status of having the world's first operating commercial spaceport.

And now it's all about recovery of the payload. We'll keep you up to date on those developments as they come in!

[Niemz]

05.14.2007
Doohan Memorial Spaceflight (UPDATE: Payload Recovered!)

UPDATE 05.18.07: UP Aerospace reported today that the memorial payload has been recovered in good condition. Details to follow. Visit www.upaerospace.com and science writer Leonard David's LiveScience.com blog for the latest.

Wende Doohan Issues Statement on Recovery Effort
"I can hear Scotty now ... 'I'm an engineer, not a navigator!'"

05.14.07 — First, the latest news out of New Mexico: "Scotty" is not "lost" as some news reports would have you believe. Officials know that the rocket carrying the ashes of James Doohan and 201 others landed within the intended target zone, but in the two weeks since flight, efforts to recover the payload have been hampered by a number of conditions.

The target zone — stipulated by the military to minimize the risk of the rocket landing in a populated area should it go awry — is a mountainous region at the White Sands Missile Range (just east of Spaceport America). It is not accessible by foot or by vehicle, but only by helicopter, and severe weather since the launch has allowed limited opportunities for such excursions. (It's extremely fortunate that the weather cooperated the way it did for the launch, as thunderstorms swept into the area later that day. There have also been tornadoes and floods in the past two weeks.)

The "pings" from the rocket's four recovery beacons have been heard, but the signals have been bouncing off the rugged terrain, so pinpointing the exact origin has been difficult. This week the manufacturer of those transmitters will be flying in with specialized equipment to better home in on those pings. Officials are confident the payload will be found this week. Upon retrieval, the capsules containing the cremated remains of each memorialized participant will be mounted on a plaque by Celestis, the memorial spaceflight service, and returned to the families.

Wende Doohan, Jimmy's widow, has issued a statement through Space Services Inc., the parent company of Celestis:

"I have the utmost faith in Jerry Larson and UP Aerospace, and appreciate all that they are doing to expedite the recovery of the rocket. I was very glad to hear that the transmitters are still 'talking,' which should help in finding the rocket needle in the White Sands haystack. This cannot be an easy task. A little cooperation from the weather would be nice, as well as a couple of trained mountain goats to handle the terrain.

"My thanks to Charlie Chafer and Space Services for ensuring integrity of the participants on board. This may be a difficult time for some people, but I have read the biography statements on many of the participants and recognize their sense of adventure, realizing that this is only part of that journey. It's all a learning process from launch through recovery, and I know Jimmy would be proud to participate in any event that helped us achieve frequent and regular space travel.

"I don't believe the rocket is really lost anyway. Jimmy and Col. [Gordon] Cooper are just taking the scenic route home — and as real men, they didn't ask for directions. As well as all the science experiments on board, somebody should have packed a map. I can just hear Scotty now, 'I dinna know where on Earth we are — I'm an engineer, not a navigator!'

"Warm regards,
Wende C. Doohan"

Michael Lucas, son of John Meredyth Lucas — also part of this mission — adds: "I guess they have boldly gone where no man can go right now..."

Watch www.upaerospace.com for the latest official updates from UP Aerospace, the launch provider also responsible for the recovery. They just posted a photo of the mountainous "recovery zone." Science writer Leonard David has also been regularly posting updates at his LiveScience.com blog, with statements from UP president Jerry Larson.

Background

To recap the story previously covered in a breaking news report, the memorial spaceflight carrying the ashes of James Doohan and 201 others successfully lifted off on Saturday, April 28, and entered space for several minutes before parachuting back to Earth. It was a fulfillment of Jimmy's wish to follow in the footsteps of Gene Roddenberry — who was similarly memorialized almost exactly 10 years prior — and finally, really fly into the final frontier, if only symbolically.

The Saturday launch was the culmination of two days of activities in southern New Mexico. It was exhausting for all involved because, not only was the weekend intrinsically emotional, but things got started very early each morning, and the driving times between locations ranged from one to two hours.

Wende Doohan was the most prominent VIP guest of the event, and the most sought-after interviewee by the press. Suzan Cooper — widow of L. Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, who died in 2004 — was also a very important part of the program. Besides their place of honor in the Friday memorial service, Wende and Suzan together pushed the button that fired the rocket on Saturday when the countdown reached zero.

(It's interesting to note — as was mentioned in the Friday memorial service — that both Doohan and Cooper passed away on anniversaries of significant space program landmarks. Cooper died on October 4, the anniversary of the flight of Sputnik, the first manmade object to enter space. Doohan died on July 20, the anniversary of mankind's first steps on the Moon. On a side note, October 4 was named Gene Roddenberry Day in nearby El Paso in 2002.)

[Niemz]

As mentioned, another honoree in the memorial spaceflight was John Meredyth Lucas, a major creative force in the Original Series. He was the only person to both write and direct the same episode of TOS, that being "Elaan of Troyius." He also wrote or directed several other episodes, and served as producer during the second season. Lucas died October 19, 2002, at age 83, shortly after completing his book, "Eighty Odd Years in Hollywood." His daughter, Victoria Lucas — an independent feature film producer — drove out from Tucson, Arizona, to attend the memorial and launch.

Doohan, Cooper and Lucas were three of 202 participants from all around the world and all walks of life who had a symbolic portion of their cremated remains — either one gram or seven grams — on the "Legacy Flight." They were originally scheduled for another mission, the "Explorers Flight," intended to put their ashes into semi-permanent orbit around the Earth (the payload would, after a number of years, eventually lose its orbit and burn up in the atmosphere). For that mission, Celestis contracted with Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) to add the memorial payload to a satellite launch. However, SpaceX experienced several test launch failures with its Falcon I rocket, which they are still addressing. When UP Aerospace announced it would fly its SpaceLoft XL rocket at the "X Prize Cup" at Spaceport America in October 2006, Celestis then decided to grant the Explorers Flight families an additional launch while waiting for SpaceX to perfect their vehicle. However, a test flight by UP in September 2006 also ended in failure, and the October launch had to be scrubbed. Upon investigation, the anomaly on that test flight proved to be fairly simple, and only required a redesign of the tail fin on the 20-foot-long SpaceLoft rocket. The Explorers Flight is still being planned for later this year, and will include the original participants plus at least 100 more.

First-hand account

The weekend in New Mexico started on Thursday, April 26, when the Legacy Flight families arrived in Las Cruces to check in with Celestis, and to get a good night's sleep before the itinerary began early the next morning.

The first thing on the agenda Friday morning was a tour of the launch pad at Spaceport America. Things had to get started earlier than originally planned, because Celestis discovered it would take two hours for a large bus to make the trek across the desert dirt roads to the spaceport (they had allotted one hour, but they were smart enough to do a test run in advance), and private cars were not allowed ... because frankly, it's too easy to get lost.

After departing from the stadium parking lot at New Mexico State University, and stopping briefly at one of New Mexico's "award-winning" rest areas (it's what the sign said!), we made the turn-off toward Upham, and passed over a cattle guard to enter the long dirt path to Spaceport America (with tiny little signs pointing the way). Those of us on the bus were quite fascinated by the desert landscape — with an interesting variety of life including jackrabbits, coyotes, and even packs of wild horses — and it was noted among us that we were perhaps making history. We could be the last large group of people to traverse this trail before the road to Spaceport America is paved.

Spaceport America recently had funding approved by the voters of Doña Ana County, who passed a sales tax increase earlier the same month. Plus, the state signed a deal with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic to make it their headquarters starting in 2009 or 2010, which will involve $27.5 million in lease money over 20 years. So construction will start soon on hangars, a terminal, and a 10,000-foot runway, where Virgin will launch trips into space for paying tourists (presumably on a ship named the V.S.S. Enterprise).

But right now all there is to Spaceport America is a 100-by-25-foot concrete launch pad, and a couple of temporary trailers to serve as launch control, in the middle of a remote desert. (See "Launch Pad Tour" photo gallery at left.)

Even though the rocket was only 20 feet long — mounted on a "launch rail" roughly 50 feet long — looking almost like a model rocket in comparison to anything you'd see at Cape Canaveral — there was still something momentous about being that close to a vehicle bound for space. Especially with the emotional resonance of knowing that James Doohan is, symbolically speaking, aboard that vehicle. The fact was evident even on the exterior of rocket, because the nosecone bore about 300 signatures of fans from a Star Trek convention held in Jimmy's home state of Washington, on the 40th anniversary of the show's first airing. (Marc B. Lee explains this at the end of our "Launch Day" video at left, and you can see close-ups of the signatures in the first photo gallery.)

After getting a good look at the rocket and its surroundings, our particular bus contingent — which included press — headed back to the launch control trailer, where Wende Doohan got a crash course on how to fire the rocket. Jerry Larson, president and chief technical officer of UP Aerospace, demonstrated to Wende how the arming sequence worked, because she — along with Suzan Cooper (who had not arrived yet) — would be flipping the switch at T-minus-zero. Press people crowded into the trailer to watch and document this (especially the BBC!), because press access to the trailer during the actual launch would be strictly limited.

(CONTINUED)

[Niemz]

As Wende continued to be pulled aside for interviews, time was becoming a real concern, because the memorial was scheduled to start at 3:00, and we had a two-hour bus ride back to Las Cruces, and then an hour drive to Alamogordo! Well, with all the Celestis officials, plus Wende, plus other dais speakers, plus most of the press on our bus, it wasn't likely the memorial could start without us! So on the trip back, Celestis chief Charlie Chafer — once he got a cellphone signal — worked things out to delay the service.

But there was another pressing time factor: The Pentagon had approved a military jet flyover at 4:00 sharp, in tribute to Gordon Cooper. And when the military has a timeframe, they stick to it!

Well, once we got back to Las Cruces we all quickly went to our rooms to change (we couldn't wear our good clothes to the desert!), and then we all flew in our individual rental cars toward Alamogordo, the location of the New Mexico Museum of Space History, where the memorial was taking place. Fortunately, everyone was equally running late, but unfortunately, the clock was ticking on the flyover. Somehow, General David Goldfein from Holloman Air Force Base — one of the dais speakers — managed to delay the flyover 15 minutes. And Charlie Chafer rearranged the memorial schedule to accommodate.

The Space Museum sits atop a hill above Alamogordo, providing the town with its most striking visual landmark. It was a beautiful day, but it was breezy to say the least (as the wind noise in our video from the memorial will attest).

The flyover by four T-38s was a classic "Missing Man" formation often performed at funerals of military officers. The maneuver basically involves one of the four jets peeling away from the others as they continue on toward the horizon, absent their "missing man." It was impressive, if quick. But what made it more striking for some of us was, the flyover had been designated as a tribute specifically for Cooper, but in General Goldfein's remarks, he also named Doohan. Unexpected, and heartwarming! (See both the memorial video and the photo gallery.)

Most of the memorial itinerary was devoted to honoring Cooper and Doohan, but the other 200 Legacy Flight participants were also recognized when their names were read by grade school children from the Alamogordo Boys & Girls Club. Other speakers included officials from the Museum, the state of New Mexico and UP Aerospace. French astronaut Jean-Loup J.M. Chrétien, the first Western European in space who flew on Space Shuttle Atlantis, gave the keynote address.

Paying specific tribute to Jimmy Doohan was Marc B. Lee, dressed very stylishly (putting some of us to shame!), in a moving speech about the virtues and glories of geekdom. He then introduced Wende, whose talk can be seen in its entirety in the memorial video.

In this speech she explained why she was wearing a brown bomber jacket all weekend: Just a week prior, the Doohan family had suffered another loss. Paul Pritchard, master sergeant of the Air Force Reserve Command — the husband of Jimmy's eldest child, Larkin (and thus, Wende's stepson-in-law) — died a week earlier after a short battle with cancer. She was wearing his flight jacket to the launch in tribute to him. "He and Jimmy are together watching history," she had told the press.

Earlier in the day, on the bus, she also told us why her and Jimmy's seven-year-old daughter Sarah did not come along to New Mexico. Wende first joked, "Can you imagine dealing with a seven-year-old on a trip like this?" (referring to the long bus ride). But more seriously, she said that Sarah had just gone through a family funeral, and another memorial so soon would have been too hard on her.

And then yours truly, at the behest of Space Services, had a part in the program on behalf of STARTREK.COM. David Redthingy had already planned to do a special "Trek Life" strip for the site to appear that weekend, and then we'd gotten the idea to turn it into a plaque to present to Wende. The inscription read, "Presented to Wende Doohan, From your friends at STARTREK.COM on behalf of Jimmy's fans everywhere, April 27, 2007." (You can see the plaque in the memorial photo gallery, and you can see the strip at this link. You can also download it as a desktop at this link.)

I don't know who started losing it first, me or Wende — I suspect it was me — but I could see the tears welling up in her eyes, when she joined me at the podium, as I was speaking (she said off-mike, "It's the wind!"). It was not my plan to get emotional, or to let my voice crack, but I did hope to say something poignant enough to be worthy of the memory of Jimmy Doohan that all of us fans have — those of us lucky enough to have seen him on TV and in the movies, and those of us lucky enough to have met him. I hope I did the fans' sentiments justice. And many thanks to David Redthingy for creating such a moving tribute.

Inside the space museum, a special display of Star Trek items was put together for the occasion, with contributions from such individuals as David C. Fein, Diana Hudson and Alamogordo's own James Gossett, who lent his Doohan-signed copy of the script for "Relics." Even CBS Consumer Products donated a few things! Cathy Harper, the museum's marketing and public relations director, gets credit for organizing the display.

No one could stay at the post-memorial reception too late, because we were due to gather again at 5:00 the next morning in yet another New Mexico town. What was worrisome about the drive back to Las Cruces was, we could see thunderstorms approaching.

(CONTINUED)

[Niemz]

But in the pre-dawn hours on Saturday, the skies seemed clear. A pre-launch briefing was held for families, press and other spectators at Hatch High School in Hatch, N.M. (45 minutes from Las Cruces), the town closest to the turnoff toward the spaceport. At that briefing, Charlie Chafer cautioned that three things could happen, two of which we wouldn't like: a successful launch; a delay or scrub; or a mission failure. And he reiterated his mantra as an entrepreneur: "Space is hard." The mayor of Hatch, Judd Nord**e, warned us to watch out for the desert critters, the thorny brush, and the anthills. Bill Heiden of UP Aerospace spelled out the technical expectations of the launch.

It was a much bigger crowd on Saturday than Friday, requiring a total of nine buses (compared to four). And we set out in the dark, crossing over the Rio Grande toward the interstate, and taking the Upham exit back to that dirt road. The trip was way more dusty this time because of the number of vehicles moving in close proximity, which was not pleasant. But some, including Wende and Suzan, seemed to sleep through it just fine.

It was daylight by the time we arrived at the viewing area, about 7:30, an hour before the scheduled launch time. A tent had been erected to provide shelter from the sun, which only a few made use of during the morning, and there were stands for coffee, water and burritos. About a third of the crowd was press, and they were so occupied with setting up their equipment that they hardly patronized the amenities.

We had to learn through word of mouth exactly where we needed to point our cameras or binoculars. The launch pad was about three miles away, and it wasn't evident where we were supposed to look. We learned to look for "the white spot" (was that the launch trailer? — not sure), then find the tower just to the left of that, then find the smaller tower at an angle to the left of that. That was the launch rail. Okay, got it.

Wende and Suzan were at the viewing site greeting people and granting yet more interviews, but they had to be pulled away in short order to get in the jeep and head toward the control center to push the launch button.

Eight-thirty rolled around, and we were hearing the communications from the control center through the P.A. system in the tent, similar to what mission control at NASA sounds like. We were prepared to be there for hours, but things got rolling right away! (We learned later that earlier that morning, weather balloons were sent out to test conditions. The first two signaled a scrub, but a third one yielded a go. They didn't dare put out a fourth.)

Launch control started countdown procedures, but then they stopped — someone was spotted in the "hazard zone," and Security had to go and get them out. That 25-minute delay was perfectly fine, though, because it gave us more of a chance to get our bearings — to figure out where we were going to stand without getting in other people's way, and for the press, to better prepare to capture a split-second event.

And it was a split-second event. Being a lightweight rocket, that sucker goes off fast! (No doubt you've seen the video already.)

It quickly disappeared into the morning sky, and we waited to hear from launch control whether or not it actually reached space. The mood was tense for some, because the company's last flight in September didn't make it.

But in the interval, immediately after blastoff, the moment was remarkably heady — speaking for pretty much everyone there. Personally, I was choked up and nearly brought to tears. This, for a 20-foot rocket launched three miles away, viewing it through a video camera.

But perhaps it's better to hear from one of the family members: "I had come expecting to be moved and excited. I had no idea how powerful the emotions were," Victoria Lucas told us later. "When they started the countdown, I felt my father's presence so strongly, because he was a space fanatic. Every launch — it didn't matter whether it was a space shuttle, whether it was Mercury, going to the Moon, anything — he was there. He was fascinated by space, and just loved space and science fiction.

"When the countdown started going," she continued, "I felt a rush of emotion that wasn't grief — it was exultation. As that rocket started its launch, I felt so strongly that he was on board that ship with Jimmy Doohan, with all the other people who were there, going up into space just exactly the way he wanted to go, and it was so moving and so powerful. It was tremendous! I had no idea."

Victoria also said that she looked around at the expressions on other people's faces, and they were almost entirely "rapturous."

The announcement from the P.A. that the rocket did achieve space seemed a bit anticlimactic to the launch itself, but people were very gratified to hear that nonetheless.

As you can see in the "Launch Day" video at left, the people from launch control soon came back to the viewing area to report on what happened, holding an impromptu press conference at the tent. They were all very happy, including officials from the state of New Mexico, who can now claim the status of having the world's first operating commercial spaceport.

And now it's all about recovery of the payload. We'll keep you up to date on those developments as they come in!

[earthcrusher]

Alrighty then!