Space, the final frontier, is also the final resting place for the actor who played one of the most beloved characters in “Star Trek”.
After 12 years of secrecy, James Doohan’s family revealed that some of the deceased actor’s ashes are resting inside the International Space Station.
Doohan, who played Scotty’s famous role in the original series “Star Trek”, has always wanted to visit space. Thus, with the help of Richard Garriott, an ordinary citizen who visited the ISS in 2008, the actor’s remains have orbited the Earth for more than a decade.
Garriott says he smuggled a laminated photo of Doohan that was sprayed with the actor’s ashes aboard the space station and placed the photo under the ground on the station’s Columbus module. According to USA Today, Garriott did not tell anyone about the scheme, only he and Doohan’s family knew about it until recently.
“It was completely clandestine,” Garriott told the Times of London (via The Verge), “As far as I know, no one has ever seen him there and no one has moved him.”
In an interview with the Times, the son of the actor, Chris Doohan, expressed gratitude for Garriott’s actions. “What he did was play – it meant a lot to me, a lot to my family and it would have meant a lot to my dad,” he said.
Days before the Times article published the 12-year secret, Chris Doohan provoked the story with a tweet. “I have been keeping a secret for over 12 years,” he wrote. “Finally … I can tell everyone soon.”
I have been keeping a secret for over 12 years. Finally, I was told that soon I can tell everyone. Stay tuned. #Star Trek
– Chris Doohan (@ChrisDoohan) December 19, 2020
According to The Verge, Doohan’s ashes were launched into space two more times, once in 2008 aboard a failed SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket mission and once again in 2012 aboard Space X’s Falcon 9 mission.
USA Today claims that Doohan’s remains on the International Space Station traveled more than 1.7 billion miles in space and orbited the Earth more than 70,000 times.