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Stymye

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snip from irish history website

Did you know the first person launched into space was a woman, an Irishwoman?
Maggie McGrew, a missile engineering executive at Patrick Air Force Base died while working on the BOMARC missile program. At her request, she was cremated and her ashes sealed into the nosecone of a Bomarc missile.
The missile with the nosecone containing her ashes was launched from Cape Canaveral into space in the spring of 1956, five years before Yuri Gagarin was launched into space
 
so she was actually the first dead person in space as opposed to yuri who was the first live person in space?
 
ashes is not a human.
maybe the ashes WERE a human.
but she, as a human was never in space.
 
Launched into _space_ in a BOMARC? Is this the surface to air missile, designated IM-99A (or CIM-10A) and IM-99B (or CIM-10B)?

For any common defination of "space", then I don't think this can be true!
 
I agree Hokky
the Bomarc had air breathing motors so It wouldnt be very effective beyond the atmosphere..I just snipped the paragraph from the site because I just found it interesting that they shot someones ashes up in a bomarc... I do know that the early bomarc had a range of 200 NM the advanced version had a range of 400 NM.. thats pretty impressive!
 
Originally posted by stymye
I agree Hokky
the Bomarc had air breathing motors so It wouldnt be very effective beyond the atmosphere..I just snipped the paragraph from the site because I just found it interesting that they shot someones ashes up in a bomarc... I do know that the early bomarc had a range of 200 NM the advanced version had a range of 400 NM.. thats pretty impressive!

I've done some googling and the ceiling of the BOMARC appears to have been between 65 and 100 thousand feet. Reasonable, since it was designed to shoot down 1950s and early 1960s bombers rather than ICBMs or IRBMs.

I agree that it's an interesting idea to fire your ashes up in a rocket. I've often considered adding a clause to my will...
 
Originally posted by hokkyokusei
I...I agree that it's an interesting idea to fire your ashes up in a rocket. I've often considered adding a clause to my will...
I have long felt that cremation is a better thing for the world left behind than ground burial.
And I have let me family know that my preference for my ashes is that they be lofted in some sort of rocket and released up at apogee.
 
Maybe your ashes could be used as tracking powder in someones high altitude launch, maybe at a NAR function. Of course if the rocket catoed on the pad, that wouldn't be too nice. :eek:
 
I think i heard that Gene Roddenberrys ashes are actually orbiting earth as we type:)
 
In 1997 Roddenberry's ashes, along with those of Timothy Leary, were shot into outer space aboard a Spanish research satellite, scheduled to orbit the earth for approximately six years.

Possibly not any more!
 
Speaking of that, I belive that the Persieds peak on August 14th with 50 to 100 per hour and bursts of quiet a few at once.
 
Originally posted by tnrocketman
I have long felt that cremation is a better thing for the world left behind than ground burial.
And I have let me family know that my preference for my ashes is that they be lofted in some sort of rocket and released up at apogee.

That could be a good business venture for experianced HPR rocketeers. "Dust to dust, tnrocketman and others to 10,000 ft. on AP."
 
Originally posted by hokkyokusei
In 1997 Roddenberry's ashes, along with those of Timothy Leary, were shot into outer space aboard a Spanish research satellite, scheduled to orbit the earth for approximately six years.

Possibly not any more!

Who2 has the details wrong.

They rode the same Pegasus as the UC-Berkeley/Spanish UV spectrometer, but were a separate payload. Gerard K. O'Neill, NASA advisor and author of "The High Frontier", was with them.

The orbit was supposed to be for "up to" six years, and we've had some hefty solar activity since then, expanding the upper atmosphere. They're almost certainly ionospheric dust by now.
 
Hm... If I keep going at my present course, I should be able to make a space shot by the time I am dead... :D Well, proabably not ME... Someone else would have to press the button. ;) :D
 
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