James 'Scotty' Doohan's ashes may have been smuggled aboard the ISS
engadget.com
engadget.com
That was a pretty amazing set of events. Really, it was a favor for a friend of mine named Dan who is a writer. He contacted me out of the blue one day, literally days before RIchard was to enter lockdown prior to his space mission, because a fellow writer's agent (who knew Dan knew someone who knew Richard) was also the agent for Wil Wheaton (who is a friend to the Doohan family), and mentioned to him that this could be a means to finally succeed in getting James Doohan's ashes into space.
Dan asked if I would first contact Richard to see if it was even possible, and if so, for me to then contact Wil Wheaton so he could arrange with the family to get some of the ashes for RIchard to carry. By the time all that got accomplished, Wil indicated that he had spoken with his friend Eric Doohan (who had been supplying some of his share of the ashes to all the various earlier attempts to get them that had failed), and indicated that Eric had been through so much of an emotional rollercoaster each time they had tried and failed previously that he didn't want to be a part of trying it anymore.
Suddenly it felt like the whole thing wouldn't happen, but after a bit more discussion Wil suggested that even though he didn't feel it would be honorable for him to push Eric any further or try to pursue it himself, if I felt strongly enough about it I could try to contact one of James Doohan's other children (who also had their share of their father's ashes) to see if any of them would still be willing to contribute to such an attempt. With time growing critically short I let Richard know what was going on and, at his behest, began designing the simplest package/memorial card I could create and get printed, while simultaneously hoping my attempts at contacting his other children would bear fruit.
Enter Chris Doohan. Chris was the only son of James Doohan who was able to accept my Friend Request on Facebook, which allowed me to contact him in greater detail about the possibility of getting his dad's ashes finally into space. He was luckily still willing to face the emotional risk of trusting others to help with this process, and as a result of Chris' willingness, Richard's quick thinking, and our friend (and also Richard's personal assistant at the time) Michelle's savvy at getting things done, we were able to arrange to get those ashes to Richard JUST in time (before he entered into quarantine before the mission) and get them concealed and sandwiched between the memorial cards I made so that they could finally find their way into space... Richard's idea to take several of them up (one to let burn up in the atmosphere, one to hide aboard the ISS, and one to bring back to the family), was brilliant as far as I'm concerned, and finally seeing this video of Richard in space talking about it is totally heartwarming for me...
There was a lot of personal feelings and emotional context I left out of the story above. As you can imagine it was incredibly stressful feeling so strongly about wanting to get this done, while also desperately trying to establish the right kind of communication in time to make it all happen. All this while dealing with a postal service being ravaged by a very active hurricane at the time that was threatening to make the attempts at delivering the ashes to Michelle fall apart. It was SO rewarding for everyone involved when it finally all came together, and Richard went and returned from space successfully and safely, secret mission accomplished... It was all a very thrilling ride, and so emotionally fulfilling to finally know that James Doohan's wishes had been fulfilled, and that his family could know that to be true, though we all had to be quiet about it for the last 15 years.... ^_^