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Before James Doohan became famous playing 'Scotty' in the original Star Trek, he was a Canadian lieutenant in World War II who heroically took out German snipers during the D-Day invasion. Doohan, who died back in 2005, had enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army when he was just 19 years old. He had progressed to the rank of lieutenant with the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division by the time Allied troops invaded Normandy on June 6, 1944. Doohan and his division were tasked with taking Juno Beach on D-Day as other Allied forces, including U.S....

UPHAM — An unmanned rocket that took off in the inaugural launch from New Mexico's spaceport crashed in the desert Monday, failing in its mission to reach sub-orbital space. The 20-foot SpaceLoft XL rocket, among the first to be launched from a commercial U.S. spaceport, was carrying various experiments and other payloads for its planned journey 70 miles above Earth. The rocket took of at 2:14 p.m. and was due back about 13 minutes later at White Sands Missile Range, just north of the launch site. Something went wrong shortly after takeoff, sending the rocket prematurely to the ground. Officials...

The payload container carrying experiments and the cremated ashes of some 200 dearly departed people — a cargo that includes remains of the beloved "Scotty" of "Star Trek" fame — has been recovered in the New Mexico mountains. "It has been found. It is in good shape," Eric Knight, co-founder of the rocket firm, UP Aerospace, that launched the cargo, told SPACE.com Friday. That payload section of UP Aerospace's second SpaceLoft XL rocket landed in rough mountainous terrain in the White Sands Missile Range after blasting off April 28th from New Mexico's Spaceport America. The suborbital rocket shot the payload...

Beaming him up was the easy part - the problem was transporting him back to Earth. A search team continues to look for a rocket carrying ashes of the actor James Doohan, who played Scotty on Star Trek, almost two weeks after it hurtled to the edge of space from New Mexico. Remains of the Canadian-born actor, who died two years ago at the age of 85, blasted off from a remote launch site on April 29 carrying a payload that included the ashes of astronaut Gordon Cooper and several experiments. A spokeswoman for Houston-based Space Services Inc, which organised...

UPHAM, N.M. - The cremated remains of actor James Doohan, who portrayed engineer "Scotty" on "Star Trek," and of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper soared into suborbital space Saturday aboard a rocket. It was the first successful launch from Spaceport America, a commercial spaceport being developed in the southern New Mexico desert. Suzan Cooper and Wende Doohan fired the rocket carrying small amounts of their husbands' ashes, and those of about 200 others, at 8:56 a.m. local time. "Go baby, go baby," said Eric Knight of the commercial launch company, UP Aerospace Inc. of Farmington, Conn. Since it was a suborbital...

The rocket, only 20ft long and 10in wide, looked more like a big firework than a giant step for mankind. But, if all goes well tomorrow, its launch will be the first successful mission from the world’s all-commercial spaceport. On board, as part of its 110lb (50kg) payload, will be a few grams of cremated remains from James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty in Star Trek. He had always wanted to experience a real trip into space, and when he died a couple of years ago he left money in his will for this purpose. As the chief engineer...

The ashes of Star Trek’s Scotty and one of NASA’s first astronauts are once more bound for the final frontier, this time aboard a privately-built rocket to launch from New Mexico this month. Portions of the cremated remains of actor James Doohan, the plucky engineer of television's Starship Enterprise, and Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper are set for an April 28 launch aboard a SpaceLoft XL rocket built by the private firm UP Aerospace. The space shot – dubbed SL-2 – will lift off from Spaceport America, a state-funded launch site near Upham, New Mexico and about 45 miles (72 kilometers)...

NEW YORK - Beam me up, indeed! James Doohan, who played chief engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the original “Star Trek” TV series and several movies, will have a few grams of his ashes blasted 70 miles into space this fall from southern New Mexico. Houston-based Space Services Inc. plans to have the ashes of 100 others aboard the Oct. 21 “memorial spaceflight” — among them, Gordon Cooper, one of the original seven Mercury astronauts.

NEW YORK - The remains of actor James Doohan, who played the starship Enterprise’s chief engineer ”Scotty” on “Star Trek,” will be blasted into space in October, the company organizing the flight said Monday. The actor who inspired the catchphrase “Beam me up, Scotty” — even though it was never actually uttered on the show — died a year ago at the age of 85. On the program, when Capt. James Kirk ventured off the spaceship Enterprise and faced peril, he would demand Scotty “beam” him back up to the safety of the ship.

Scotty, the chief engineer on the fictional U.S.S. Enterprise who was always scrambling to heed the cry, “Beam me up, Scotty!” has been transported himself. The ashes of James Doohan, the actor who portrayed the original “Star Trek” character Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, have been interred for a dozen years on the International Space Station (ISS). And on Monday, the backstory of how they came to be there was revealed in full....

Some great men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have great catchphrases said to them. James Doohan is an honorary member of that last category. He was the guy who spent four decades on the receiving end of the request to "Beam me up, Scotty" – if not on TV, where no character on Star Trek ever actually uttered the words, at least in real life, where fans would cheerfully bark the injunction across crowded airport concourses in distant lands, and rush-hour freeway drivers would lurch across four lanes of traffic to yell it out the window at...

Doohan did so well he became a Commissioned Lieutenant with the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. In 1940, he was sent to England for further training. Fast forward to D-Day – the Allied Invasion of France on June 6, 1944. The British, Americans and Canadians were each assigned a portion of France’s Normandy beaches.

At the beginning of the Second World War, Doohan joined the Royal Canadian Artillery. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the 13th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. Doohan went to England in 1940 for training. His first combat was the invasion of Normandy at Juno Beach on D-Day. Shooting two snipers, Doohan led his men to higher ground through a field of anti-tank mines, where they took defensive positions for the night. Crossing between command posts at 11:30 that night, Doohan was hit by six rounds fired from a Bren gun by a nervous Canadian...

He bested the forces of Adolf Hitler on the beaches of Normandy and blasted genetic superman Khan Noonien Singh out of space in a far-flung galaxy. How can James Doohan not be the greatest Sarnia of our time? Heck, he might be the greatest of all space and time? Doohan is best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, the excitable, dependable and miracle-working chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise on the classic '60s sci-fihit Star Trek. If your dilithium crystals were ever fried, your photo torpedo tubes jammed or you were short a man in a brawl with...

James Doohan's Final Tribute in Space Nearly two years after his death, the man who made "beam me up" a household phrase has finally been beamed up himself. James Doohan, famous for his role as Scotty on "Star Trek," is one of about two hundred people whose ashes blasted off from New Mexico's Spaceport America on Saturday. "This is the best final tribute for someone like James Doohan," said Charles Chafer, owner of Space Services Inc., the company behind the launch. "Really, it was James's wish to join his buddy Gene [Roddenberry] in space."

Doohan Memorial Spaceflight Set for April 27-28 The first rocket launch which will memorialize James Doohan by taking a portion of his cremated remains into space has been set for Saturday, April 28, in New Mexico, with a public memorial planned for the day prior. The memorial service will be held at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo on Friday, April 27. The Saturday launch will take place at New Mexico's new "Spaceport America" location adjacent to the White Sands Missile Range. A specific time of day has not yet been set for either event. Both the...

It cannae take me, captain That's life, Jim ... Doohan as Scotty     By EMILY SMITH US Editor THE ashes of Star Trek’s Scotty will not be boldy going into space next month — after his rocket was grounded with engine problems. A technical glitch hit the Falcon One craft that was intended to take actor James Doohan’s remains to the final frontier on December 6.Now the launch to bid farewell to Canadian actor Doohan — who played engineer Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott in the hit TV show — has been delayed until February.Charles Chafer of Space Services Inc said:...

A new type of transparent armor made of aluminum could one day replace glass in military vehicles. The product is called aluminum oxynitride. It is being tested by the Army and the University of Dayton Research Institute in Ohio. The material is a ceramic compound with a high compressive strength and durability, according to an Army statement issued this week. It performs better than the multilayered glass products currently in use, and its about half the weight. It is virtually scratch-resistant. "The substance itself is light-years ahead of glass," said 1st Lt. Joseph La Monica, who heads the research. Glass...

Saturday, 15 October 2005, 08:48 GMT 09:48 UK Space date set for Scotty's ashes Star Trek actor James Doohan, who played Scotty in the series, will have his final wish granted when his ashes are sent into space on 6 December. Doohan died of Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia in July, aged 85. His ashes will be accompanied by thousands of tributes from fans of the sci-fi show. "James spent so much time with fans and many want to come to his space blast," a Space Services Inc spokeswoman said. The firm will fire the ashes into orbit from a California...

This just in on Fox News Channel: James Doohn, "Scotty" of Star Trek, has passed away due to pneumonia and complications from Alzheimer's Disease. James Montgomery Doohan (born March 3, 1920, died July 20, 2005) was a Canadian actor and linguist best known for his portrayal of Scotty in the television and movie series Star Trek.Doohan was born in Vancouver, British Columbia; his family later moved to Sarnia, Ontario where he attended high school at "SCITS," Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School and excelled in math and science.During World War II, he participated in the invasion of Juno Beach on...