"Star Trek" star James Doohan (File Photo)

    BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhuanet) -- "Star Trek" star James Doohan finally made it to space Saturday when a rocket with some of his cremated remains blasted off in the New Mexico desert.

    Ashes of Doohan, who played the starship Enterprise's chief engineer Scotty on "Star Trek," soared into suborbital space aboard a telephone pole-size rocket launched at around 9:00 local time.

    Family and friends who watched the rocket take off from about sbout 8 kilometer away cheered and cried as it flew and the mission control center announced the launch was successful.

    "It was great, it was fun and we want to go again," said Doohan's widow, Wende Doohan, who pressed the launch button with former U.S. astronaut Gordon Cooper's widow, Susan Cooper.

    Wende said Friday her husband would have been thrilled at the prospect of a "space funeral."

    "He would be ecstatic," she said. "He would be the one pressing the button. He totally was so into space."

    Doohan's ashes were accompanied by the remains of Cooper and those of 200 other people.

    The flight was arranged by Houston-based company Space Services Inc. The company charges 495 U.S. dollars to send a portion of a person's ashes into suborbital space.

    During the 15-minute flight, the rocket separated into two parts and returned to Earth on parachutes with the capsules holding the remains.

    Capsules containing the ashes are retrieved, mounted on plaques and given back to relatives.

    Doohan's posthumous spaceflight saw him follow "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, whose remains were fired into space by Space Services I (SSI) in 1997, six years after his death.

    (Agencies)

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