James Doohan Ashes Lost Somewhere in New Mexico

The remains of James Doohan, the Irish-Canadian actor from the original Star Trek series, is currently lost somewhere in New Mexico.

On April 29, James Doohan's ashes, along with the ashes of about 200 other people, were blasted off toward the edge of space. The ashes were traveling in a telephone-sized rocket which took off from a remote launch site in New Mexico. Hundreds of people watched and clapped as the rocket roared as it took off, along with the ashes of various people such as astronaut Gordon Cooper, who first went into space in 1863, and later died in 2004 at the age of 77.

The rocket spent two weeks in orbit and then came back to earth by parachute. However due to "horrendous" weather in the desert state, the rocket ended up landing into a rugged area that a search team has repeatedly failed to reach.

"The terrain is very mountainous; it's not somewhere that you can walk or drive to. My understanding is that it will take some time to get up into there," Susan Schonfeld, a spokeswoman for Houston-based Space Services told Reuters by telephone. "They know the general location, and we have the utmost confidence that they will recover it."

Schonfled adds that the search has been hindered by the weather in New Mexico, but the search team is working very hard on this. She expects that the Up Serospace Spaceloft XL craft will be found within days.

James Doohan was 85 when he died two years later. Doohan's family paid $495 to send one gram of his ashes to space. Doohan's wife remarked how much James would have loved the idea of being launched to space. ""He would be ecstatic!"

"This is the best final tribute for someone like James Doohan," said Charles Chafer, owner of Space Services Inc., the company behind the launch. "Really, it was James's wish to join his buddy Gene [Roddenberry] in space."

Remains of Gene Roddenberry were blasted into space in 1977 by the same company, Space Services Inc. This company gives options on how you would like the remains to be launched into space. The most affordable and popular option is a single gram of ashes for $495.

"We launch his remains into space and return them so there's a keepsake of a little bit of Scotty who has flown to space," said Charles Chafer, who also adds that there are plans for a future trek where another portion of James Doohan's ashes will be actually released into space.