During mission STS-52, NASA astronaut and shuttle commander James Wetherbee brought a small container with a portion of Roddenberry’s ashes into space with him per the request of Roddenberry’s widow, Majel Barrett. It was Roddenberry’s lifelong dream to go to space, but he never got to go while he was alive.
On Oct. 22, 1992, the space shuttle Columbia launched into space with the ashes of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of “Star Trek.”
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But thanks to his wife, a little bit of Roddenberry finally made it to space almost exactly one year after his death. NASA and his family didn’t tell anyone about it until almost two years later.
Now, this historic moment has become famous for being the first ever “space burial.”
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