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Remains of Star Trek's 'Scotty' headed for space

Reuters, Oct. 16, 2005 - Evidently Star Trek actor James "Scotty" Doohan took the catchphrase "beam me up" very seriously - his cremated remains will be launched into space in accord with his last wishes.

Commercial space flight operator Space Services Inc will launch the late actor's remains into space aboard its Explorers Flight on December 6, a company spokeswoman said.

She said the remains of more than 120 others will be aboard the flight, including those of an unidentified astronaut and Mareta West, the astrogeologist who determined the site for the first spacecraft landing on the moon.

Space Services spokeswoman Susan Schonfeld declined to identify the astronaut whose cremated remains will be launched into space. She said the name would be announced the day of the launch.

Doohan, who portrayed feisty chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the Star Trek television series, died in July at age 85.

On the show, when Capt James Kirk ventured off the spaceship Enterprise and faced peril, he would demand Scotty "beam" his body up to the safety of the ship.

The actual phrase "Beam me up, Scotty," was not used on the show, but it entered pop culture.

To mark the flight into his final frontier, Doohan's family will hold a service for fans on a site near Vandenberg Air Force Base north of Los Angeles the day of the launch to pay tribute to him.

Some fans are expected to attend in the formal white suit of a Star Fleet commander.

"I can't think of a more fitting send-off than having some of his fans attend this, his final journey," his widow, Wende Doohan, said in an open invitation to the service.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry also had his remains shot into space after his death in 1991. They returned to Earth in 2002, Schonfeld said.

Doohan's cremated remains will be packed into a special tube that is ejected from the rocket and expected to orbit Earth for about 50 to 200 years before plunging into the planet's atmosphere and burning up.

Fans can post tributes to Doohan at the Space Services website (http://www.spaceservicesinc.com). Those messages will be digitised, packed with "Scotty" and blasted into space.

The free MyFuneral service at http://www.PartingWishes.com allows you to specify your own funeral wishes free of charge, including the option to have your remains launched into space if you so wish.

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