The first rocket launch to 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 memorial and viewing of the launch will be open to the general public. Doohan's widow, Wende, will be present at both events, and other special guests may be announced later.

"While 'Scotty' lived this, Jimmy lived for this," Ms. Doohan said in a press release. "I will be there to see the launch, knowing that Jimmy is participating in an industry which he loved so very much.”

Space Services Inc. (SSI), aka Celestis, provides the memorial spaceflight service by partnering with a launch provider and attaching a canister of modules containing a "symbolic portion" of each participant's ashes — seven grams or less — to a rocket vehicle, usually as a "secondary payload."

The April launch is dubbed "The Legacy Flight," and will memorialize 201 deceased besides Doohan. John Meredyth Lucas, a writer/director/producer on the Original Series ("Elaan of Troyius," etc.), who died in 2002, will also be part of that flight. So will "Mercury 7" astronaut Gordon Cooper, who died in 2004, and he will also have a memorial service devoted to him at the museum on the 27th.

The Legacy Flight payload will include a disc containing about 10,000 messages of tribute to Doohan, which were submitted by fans at the SSI website (that forum is now closed).

Spaceport America — the world's first commercial facility of its kind and the future home of Virgin Galactic — is located roughly 45 miles north of Las Cruces, off Interstate 25 near the unincorporated town of Upham. Stay tuned for future postings giving more specific instructions on how to get there.

Alamogordo, where the Friday memorial will take place, is about 70 miles northeast of Las Cruces (click here for directions to the museum). The nearest major airport is El Paso, which is 50 miles south of Las Cruces. SSI will be keeping its base of operations in Las Cruces, since that is the most central location. If you plan to come for the entire weekend, that's probably the best place to reserve a room.

We'll be bringing you updates as the logistics of these events come together. But these dates and locations are firm, and you can start to make travel plans.

However, please be mindful that any rocket launch is at the mercy of the weather, so unfavorable conditions could force a delay or postponement. The memorial service, though, should go forward no matter what. Visit the links at the bottom of page 2 for more information (updates to those sites will be ongoing).

The Legacy Flight originally was scheduled for October 21, but a test flight of the rocket — a SpaceLoft XL — a few weeks prior by the launch provider was unsuccessful. The firm, UP Aerospace, has analyzed the anomaly and has modified the vehicle. "The new design is robust and can handle very large deviations ... so we have built in a lot of margin in the new design," said the head of UP Aerospace in a related Space.com article. No further test flights are planned before April 28.

Officials from the State of New Mexico will formally announce the April 28 date at a press conference in Las Cruces this Friday. The actual SpaceLoft rocket will be present at the press conference, and the "integration" of the memorial payload will take place at that time. You may be hearing more about that in the mainstream press. See the Celestis press release on page 2 for details.

Another memorial spaceflight called "The Explorers Flight" is still being planned for later this year, utilizing a Falcon rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). The Explorers Flight will put Doohan's remains into Earth orbit semi-permanently, whereas the Legacy Flight is an "Earth-return" mission, lifting the payload to a suborbital altitude then parachuting back to the ground. The modules are then returned to the families on a commemorative plaque.

James Doohan — who played "Montgomery Scott" in the Original Series, the Animated Series (along with several other voices), seven "Star Trek" movies and an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation — died in 2005 on July 20, which poetically is the anniversary of mankind's first steps on the Moon. The majority of Doohan's ashes were scattered over Puget Sound in Washington State, with a portion set aside for the memorial flights.

Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991, was memorialized on SSI's "Founders Flight" in 1997.

A portion of the proceeds from the Legacy Flight will be donated to Cowboys for Kids, Doohan's favored charity.

Page 2: Celestis press release