Thursday, May 10, 2007

Scotty's ashes are missing

The company that sent James Doohan's ashes into space are having trouble finding the payload that contained them back since the re-entry of the vehicle:
After a successful blastoff from New Mexico's Spaceport America on April 28th, the UP Aerospace SpaceLoft XL rocket and its payload nosed into space on a suborbital trajectory. As part of launch operations, the rocket was tracked by specialists at the neighboring White Sands Missile Range.

While all went well with the flight, the rocket components parachuted into rough and tumble terrain. Repeated searches within the landing zone have come up empty.

Jerry Larson, President of UP Aerospace, has told me that the general location of the rocket hardware is known within some 1,300 feet (400 meters) or so. But given the dense vegetation on the side of the mountain being searched, along with equipment available to the search team, pinpointing the exact locale has proven a tough assignment.

What, is it too expensive to include a quality GPS tracking device with the cargo when you are responsible for the cremated remains of more than 200 people?

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