Star Trek Creator's Cremains To Be Carried Into Eternity On NASA-Developed Solar Sail

Gene Roddenberry's remains have been sent to space and recovered before, but on an upcoming flight, the remains of the creator of Star Trek and his wife Majel Barrett will fly into eternity together carried by an experimental solar sail developed by NASA.

The launch, currently scheduled for November, 2014, was first announced by Texas-based Celestis in a news release dated May 2009. Celestis is in the business of launching cremated remains into space and returning them to Earth. But on this mission, the remains of Roddenberry and Barrett, along with the cremains of James Doonhan ... Scotty on the original series ... digital files, DNA, and hair samples from science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, will be launched into space to stay.

The payload will travel through space propelled by the experimental Sun Jammer solar sail.

Roddenberry died in 1991. Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Christine Chapel on the original series as well as Lwaxana Troi on The Next Generation, and who provided the voice of many of Star Fleet's computer systems, passed away in 2008. Doohan died in 2005.

Celestis says the journey will be recorded by cameras onboard the spacecraft and streamed online live.

(Solar sail image provided by NASA.)

FMI: www.celestis.com