James Doohan, immortalized as "Scotty" from the sci-fi TV series "Star Trek", had a dream realized when his cremated remains reached suborbital space.
He had the ashes of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper along for the ride on Saturday -- along with about 200 others.
They were part of the first successful launch from Spaceport America, a commercial spaceport in the desert of southern New Mexico.
The cost of having their ashes launched was US$495. The deal was made with Celestis, a Houston company.
Suzan Cooper and Wende Doohan, the men's wives, fired the rocket, which launched at 8:56 a.m. local time.
James Doohan died in 2005 at age 85. Wende, who had been married to him for 30 years, said he wanted a space ride for his remains ever since those of Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry were launched in 1997.
In watching the launch, Wende wore a flight jacket from Air Force Reserve Chief Master Sgt. Paul Pritchard, who was a son-in-law. Pritchard died this week of cancer.
"He and Jimmy are together watching history," Wende Doohan said.
Doohan, Cooper and other family and friends saw the six-metre rocket launch from about six kilometres away.
"Go baby, go baby," said Eric Knight of UP Aerospace Inc., the commercial launch company based in Farmington, Conn. Celestis contracted with them.
After the rocket returned to Earth at the White Sands Missile Range, Knight said: "We nailed it. We stuck the landing."
UP Aerospace had launched another rocket in September, but the SpaceLoft XL spiraled out of control nine seconds after liftoff. The rocket crashed in the desert.
Saturday's launch keeps UP a step ahead of its nearest competitor.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, is developing a company called Blue Origin. That business hopes to launch space tourist flights out of a spaceport north of Van Horn, Texas.
Richard Branson, the British billionaire, also wants to get into the space tourism business. He wants to have its headquarters at the New Mexico spaceport more than 80 kilometres north of Las Cruces.
With files from the Associated Press
