On Omelek Island in the Pacific Ocean, 2,500 miles from Hawaii, a rocket carrying the ashen remains of Star Trek actor James “Scotty” Doohan and 207 other people was poised to rocket to the heavenes Saturday. Footing the bill: Elon Musk of PayPal and Tesla Motors fame. Instead, the tech entrepreneur, now dabbling in aeronautics, tried and failed to launch a rocket into orbit for the third time on Saturday. The Falcon 1 owned by Musk's private space exploration company, SpaceX, left the ground and stayed off it for 2 minutes and 20 seconds before second- and third-stage rockets failed to ignite. The whole thing, including Scotty's ashes, plunged back to earth. Musk, promising to "never give up," called the failure "a big disappointment." Aye, the haggis is in the fire for sure. All of this reminds us of a definition of "founder": "to fill with water and sink."

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