Doohan's Ashes Will Be Recovered This Week, Weather Permitting

The remains of James Doohan (Scotty) and the others sent into space aboard a SpaceLoft XL rocket at the end of April have been located.

Doohan's ashes, plus those of some 200 other people sent up on the suborbital flight, are in a capsule that went down in the mountains of New Mexico, reported MSNBC's Cosmic Log. Tracking efforts expect to launch a recovery effort on Wednesday.

With the help of transmitters, the capsule search area has been narrowed to about 1300 feet. It is located on a mountain with heavy vegetation that has made it difficult to spot the parachute. The remains will then be sent by UP Aerospace back to Celestis, the Houston company that organized the memorial spaceflight, to be returned to the families of the deceased.

StarTrek.com noted that the remains were never "lost" as some news venues had reported, but simply had not yet been retrieved. Doohan's widow issued a statement saying that she had faith in the rocket recovery operation and adding, "I know Jimmy would be proud to participate in any event that helped us achieve frequent and regular space travel...I can just hear Scotty now, 'I dinna know where on Earth we are — I'm an engineer, not a navigator!'"

StarTrek.com also has links to a full report on and video of the launch.

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