While we all know very well the story of Richard Garriott’s $30 million ticket on board a rocket to visit the International Space Station in 2008, there was one secret that he kept from that trip — until now.
Apparently, the Ultima Online creator helped to smuggle a picture and some ashes of James “Scotty” Doohan after NASA denied permission to the family to bring the remains of the dead Star Trek actor into outer space. So without telling authorities, Garriott did so anyway, tucking the remains into a hidden part of the ISS. As a result, part of Doohan’s remains have now orbited Earth over 70,000 times.
“It was completely clandestine,” Garriott admitted. “His family were very pleased that the ashes made it up there, but we were all disappointed we didn’t get to talk about it publicly for so long. Now enough time has passed that we can.”
Chris Doohan, James’ son, thanked Garriot, saying, ““What he did was touching – it meant so much to me, so much to my family and it would have meant so much to my dad.”
…I suppose this didn’t make the Golden Yachties, because it involves orbiting spacecraft. >.<
Dang! I didn’t realize this was a secret. Due to my work position then, got to listen to a lot of the calls setting this up. It took a lot of finagling to get it done, was not an easy proposition.
And of course, the NCSoft fiasco was also kicking in right then.
How dare he do something cool like this? It IS cool. This is a nice thing and when/if it does come crashing down, at least in some way, he got to go.
Does NASA have a comment on this?
Really they are the only ones with standing to complain about it.
It was Roscosmos (the Russian Space Agency) that got paid to give him a space vacation.
Russian Space Agency,” You want to go to Sun? You have 3000 Bitcoins? Da? We take you now. Get in nuclear powered slingshot.”
Does he think that’s cool? Things are highly regulated on the ISS for a reason.
They probably found and trashed it before long assuming it was his cocaine stash or some such. I doubt there are any genuinely “hidden parts” of the ISS that he was able to access. Its internal volume is about the same as a Boeing 747. And the crew maintain the place like their lives depend on it. Because their lives do depend on it.
https://www.cnet.com/news/so-theres-a-gorilla-suit-on-board-the-international-space-station/
Wasn’t from the actual space station but instead was actually feed from the Planet of the Apes Dimension space station instead.
Just sayin.
Reminds me of his accusation that NCSoft forged his signature on Tabula Rasa…
“And how do you know NCSoft forged your signature and that this is not a genuine Richard Garriot signature?”
“*ahem* I was not on the planet at the time of signature.”
“…what?”
“I was in space.”
NCSoft Lawyers: “Could you repeat that? We couldn’t hear you over the sound of us sh*tting ourselves.”
Huh. I thought I remembered that Doohan’s ashes going to space was sanctioned by NASA.
edit: ahh that was SpaceX
Does it matter?
Humanity didn’t listen to the real message behind Star Trek anyway…which James Doohan was a huge part of putting forward to others…which was to learn to accept others, no matter what they look like, and that we’re all in this together and need to forget about greed and petty squabbling and move forward if we ever mean to achieve great things.
At this rate, it’s just going to be a station that will eventually have no support and will eventually crash back to Earth and fry his remains that were (Supposedly) put there, because we’re not smart enough to use Lagrange points to properly position it, and it needs regular thruster adjustments to maintain it’s position which means steady refueling runs, and considering the way humanity is treating each-other lately, we’re highly likely to wipe each-other out en-masse here soon.
I mean, currently we’re letting a virus get the better of us because people can’t be arsed to listen to scientists anymore…and who do you think put people up there?
Stay positive.
Cause peoples need some cheer.
To use that movie as an example (Yes, I watched it.), they assumed most ‘alien’ life forms would be generally humanoid/bipedal, and the likely-hood of that is very slim…then they used all kinds of human ‘issues’ to gin up a ‘hero’ story where humanity could be the ‘saviors’.
Why can’t we just each accept that not everything needs saving(Or brought into a ‘norm’), and be OK with differences?
Kinda hard, as a pessimist.
Don’t give up, buddy.
Trying, but many days lately I’m just done. Fighting an illness of some type (Unknown at this point) that’s kept me exhausted/fatigued.
Then I get to read about how horrible humans are being all the time online, because that’s pretty much all I can do anymore. Barely even able to do dishes the last time I tried, it left me about to pass out.
shows that he can’t be trusted. rules exist for a reason… which is why things like sandwiches tend to be banned.
I’m… really torn on this story. I’m sure it was nice for the family, but the “having money means you can get around the rules” aspect is pretty cringe for me.
The Golden Rule: Him whats gots the gold makes the rules.
Welcome to the entire history of humanity. Successful people get to bend or ignore the rules. It’s one of the reasons why being successful is something to strive for. It’s always been this way and it always will be this way.
I agree with the first part of that but not the second of that last sentence.
You’re not wrong, but I’m not going to cheer it on.