The ashes are pretty benign and, as far as electrical, thermal or communication requirements, have none, according to Celestis’s Chafer. Today getting remains to space is a little less mystical.įirst there is the space burial service, like Celestis or Elysium, which takes payment from the departed family, receives the ashes and provides the container. Space has always been hallowed ground, akin to heaven, where humans imagined lost souls, the dead, heroes or gods, out there wandering among the cosmos. Cultures throughout history tend to “see off” their dead in one way or another, whether through days of prayer or pushing corpse-filled burning boats to sea like the vikings. While the thought of firing a loved one’s remains into space may seem excessive, the idea isn’t without precedent. “It’s a challenge marrying two of the most conservative industries on the planet,” says Charles Chafer who runs space burial firm Celestis. We took a look at what it takes to catalyze a loved one’s return to starstuff, the interwoven supply chain of doing so, and the guiding trends. But traditional funeral prices have increased to the point that a space funeral is in a competitive ballpark. Some space-y remains, such as psychedelics evangelist Tim Leary and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, have been sent up already. But the new space age is also opening niche space-borne products to the average person, like space-aged scotch and, yes, space funerals. Now anyone can monitor a satellite’s progress from a laptop. Today the bereaved can pay to have remains sent here, to the moon or even to(wards) a galaxy far far away.Ĭompanies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin make headlines with promises of accessible, commercial space flight that will open up amateur space experimentation, new communication systems and travel to Mars. The hope was for the rocket to drop the space urn into orbit, so families could peer up at loved ones in the night sky, a funeral rite of the future. But this vessel had a curious payload: human remains, packed into metal cubes. Failed rocket launches aren’t noteworthy by themselves. The rocket lifted off, departed the white sands, began spinning, which stabilizes the craft, and seemed destined for a planned orbit about 260 miles above the planet.īut about a minute after takeoff something went wrong –– the Defense Department doesn’t share specifics –– and the Super Strypi came crashing back to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific. In November 2015 near the beaches of Hawaii, the latest incarnation of a military rocket dating back to the early 1960s called the Super Strypi launched its inaugural voyage.
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