A Florida avionics company successfully fired a low-altitude rocket at a new spaceport in New Mexico where the state hopes to launch commercial space tourism flights within two years.

A rocket carrying the ashes of actor James Doohan – Scotty on Star Trek – and astronaut Gordon Cooper should be recovered within a week from a remote New Mexico mountain range, the launch company said.

A sniper opened fire Saturday at a rural Southern California recycling centre, wounding a worker and a deputy, then fled before being killed hours later in a shoot-out after deputies spotted him from a helicopter.