How many times do I get lost in space?

Missing Rocket, Missing Remains – The Lede – Breaking News – New York Times Blog — This story is just breaking but if you read it you cannot figure out what really happened since they says Scotty’s ashes were lost but then they will re-launch.

When a spacecraft headed for Earth orbit was lost Saturday night, the small satellites for NASA and the Department of Defense were on board. But something else went missing as well from the SpaceX flight: portions of the cremated remains of 208 people who were being sent into orbit by Celestis, a company that offers “Explorer Flight” space burial services. Two of the people whose remains had been on the flight of the SpaceX Falcon 1 were Gordon Cooper , the Mercury astronaut, and James Doohan, the actor who played the wily engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on the original Star Trek series.

OK, that said how does any of this jive with the reports here and here that Doohan’s ashes were lost in New Mexico in 2007 at another launch? There is no mention of this in the Times. In fact this new story seems a lot like the old story. What gives? Something is wrong with this picture.




  1. Paul Camp says:

    Jibe, dude.

    Jibe.

  2. lou says:

    Scotty would have got the flight there if he was on the job.

  3. Jägermeister says:

    Cut them some slack… they’re making progress… *cheers*

  4. Scott says:

    She’s breaking up Captain, she can’ne hold it together

  5. edwinrogers says:

    A sloppy and misleading news report feeds at least five blogs.

  6. Hmmm… They don’t send all the ashes up. Just a small amount. I make an educated guess that after the first attempt to launch some of Soctty’s ashes in 2007 have failed someone paid for another batch to be sent up now and this attempt also failed…

  7. Ah_Yea says:

    Ok, I have to say it.

    “Going where no man has gone before!”

  8. QB says:

    Ah dinna wee think we can make it Captain.

    Scotty inspired a whole generation of geeks. Who cares if his ashes didn’t make it yet, we still love the guy.

  9. Ah_Yea says:

    This is even better. Roaming space. You know that’s what he’d want.

  10. natefrog says:

    …This just goes to show why the phrase is “…it ain’t rocket science!”

    NASA’s expensive for a reason, folks…

  11. ECA says:

    for those that didnt read some of the articles, THIS WAS THE 3rd rocket to NOT reach SPACE.

  12. ChrisB says:

    If I recall correctly, the first time the ashes went up they ended up crashing in a jungle somewhere in Central or South America. They were eventually recovered several weeks later and were planning on trying again later.

  13. RTaylor says:

    A high failure rate is common with new launch vehicles. It’s very expensive learning curve. An earlier poster is correct, only a small volume of cremains are used. An average adult will yield about nine pounds of cremains.

  14. the answer says:

    Maybe that’s what that “meteor” I saw come out of the sky going south of Philadelphia. I thought I did see a flash of impact light, but not sure, I did hear it whistle and burn bluish.

  15. George says:

    Why all the fuss about shooting lifeless matter into orbit? We’re all space voyagers, the only difference is that our space capsule weighs 6 sextillion metric tons.

  16. Uncle Patso says:

    # 3 Jägermeister:

    I love it! _Where_ is that place?


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