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Author
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Topic: Gordon Cooper's posthumous spaceflight (Celestis)
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FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 12-01-2005 05:07 PM
  
It's been made official: Mercury astronaut's ashes going to space Before his death a year ago, Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper wished he could have one more trip into outer space — and sometime next year, a little bit of his mortal remains will take that final trip, along with the ashes of a "Star Trek" star and more than 170 others.Suzan Cooper, the astronaut's widow, told MSNBC.com Thursday that her late husband's ashes will be included in a memorial payload to be flown on SpaceX's second Falcon 1 launch, now scheduled for liftoff during the first quarter of 2006 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. "In life, Gordon would have taken another trip into space ... so I figured, why not now?" Cooper said in a telephone interview from Ventura, Calif. And he'll be flying with James "Scotty" Doohan, no less... |
carmelo
Member Posts: 1047
From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 12-02-2005 09:03 AM
So, at the last, Gordo back in space 41 years after GT-5. |
DavidH
Member Posts: 1217
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted 12-02-2005 09:37 AM
When I saw Cernan and Schmitt speak for the 30th anniversary of Apollo 17, Gene referred to Ron Evans' death as when he "left the Earth for the last time."In Gordo's case, that will be poetically literal. |
ASCAN1984
Member Posts: 1049
From: County Down, Nothern Ireland
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 12-02-2005 12:36 PM
I wonder how much it would cost to do that? |
mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 12-02-2005 12:50 PM
quote:
Originally posted by ASCAN1984:
I wonder how much it would cost to do that?
Out of curiosity, I looked at their prices. For a 1 gram container, it's $995 to be placed in orbit. If you want to go to the moon or deep space, plan on spending $12,000+
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ASCAN1984
Member Posts: 1049
From: County Down, Nothern Ireland
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 12-02-2005 04:11 PM
Wow. That is very reasonable. |
Moltke
Member Posts: 63
From: United Kingdom
Registered: Dec 2005
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posted 12-05-2005 01:44 AM
Susan Schonfeld, a spokesperson for Space Services Inc. said that the company has set up a website that will allow the public to write remembrances and these messages will go into space along with Gordo's ashes. |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 12-09-2005 11:54 AM
And if you read the messages already posted, you'll see very nice tributes by Cece Bibby and Dee O'Hara. |
spaceuk
Member Posts: 2113
From: Staffs, UK
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 07-26-2006 07:33 AM
Astronaut Gordon Cooper's ashes and Star Trek's "Scotty" actor ashes to be launched into space and returned to Earth in October. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42986
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 04-02-2007 02:54 PM
From the Associated Press (via the Houston Chronicle): Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper and some 200 others were loaded into the rocket Friday by Charles Chafer, chief executive of Celestis, a Texas company that contracts with rocket firms to send cremated remains into space."And we're ready to go," Chafer said after inserting the silver canister. Jerry Larson, president of Connecticut-based UP Aerospace Inc., said the rocket will be launched April 28. |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2031
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 04-02-2007 04:17 PM
To quote the movie of "The Right Stuff": "GO, HOT DOG!" |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42986
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 04-27-2007 11:21 PM
The launch of UP Aerospace's SpaceLoft XL on the SL-2 mission with Space Services' Legacy Flight including Gordon Cooper's remains is scheduled for Saturday, April 28. The launch window opens at 8:30 a.m. MDT and extends until 2:30 p.m. The suborbital launch will be staged from New Mexico's Spaceport America in Las Cruces. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42986
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 04-28-2007 10:58 AM
A successful third and final flight for Gordo... from the Associated Press: Suzan Cooper and Wende Doohan fired the rocket carrying their husbands' ashes. The rocket took off at 8:56 a.m. local time and disappeared into the atmosphere within 12 seconds.It landed at White Sands Missile Range shortly after. |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 04-28-2007 12:00 PM
God speed, Gordo. Of course, he dearly wanted to fly a third mission when at NASA, but never had the opportunity. So this seems like a very fitting last mission for him to get. |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 04-28-2007 04:02 PM
It appears that you can still add condolence messages at this site. The messages sent in to that site earlier, from people such as Dee O'Hara, Cece Bibby, and many regulars to collectSPACE, were I believe included on a CD that was sent on the flight. |
Jack A. Kozak
Member Posts: 15
From: Akron, OH
Registered: May 2006
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posted 04-29-2007 12:07 PM
News reports leading up to the launch stated that the remains would be placed into orbit. Now it appears that the flight was sub-orbital, and all payload ashes came back to earth by parachute. It is also being reported that more of Doohan's ashes will be sent into orbit in December. |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 05-12-2007 09:50 AM
Sadly, it sounds like Gordo and Doohan's ashes have yet to be recovered from the landing zone. |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 05-15-2007 02:53 PM
Looks like they are now getting closer to finding it, thank goodness. |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 05-18-2007 01:35 PM
And now, found, thank goodness. The rocket payload containing samples of cremated remains from "Star Trek" actor James Doohan, pioneer astronaut Gordon Cooper and 200 other dearly departed has been found in a surprising place, more than two weeks after its rise to - and fall from - outer space.Connecticut-based UP Aerospace, which launched the payload on its SpaceLoft XL rocket on April 28, had been looking for it in remote mountainous terrain within New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range. But it turned out that the payload actually came down in a flat area of the range, less than a mile from the rocket's aim point, said Jerry Larson, the company's president and a leader of the search team. |
Topic Closed
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