Space Burial
Space burial

							

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"Space funeral" redirects here. For the video game, see Space Funeral.


Space burials launch cremated remains out of the atmosphere. Space burial is the launching of human remains into space. Missions may go into orbit around the Earth or to extraterrestrial bodies such as the Moon, or farther into space.
Remains are sealed until the spacecraft burns up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere or they reach their extraterrestrial destinations. Suborbital flights briefly transport them into space then return to Earth where they can be recovered. Small samples of remains are usually launched to minimize the cost of launching mass into space, thereby making such services more affordable.


History and typology[edit]
The concept of launching human remains into space using conventional rockets was proposed by the science fiction author Neil R. Jones in the novella "The Jameson Satellite", which was published in the pulp magazine Amazing Stories in 1931.[1] It was later proposed as a commercial service in the 1965 movie, The Loved One,[2] and by Richard DeGroot in a The Seattle Times newspaper article on April 3, 1977.[3] Since 1997, the private company Celestis has conducted numerous space burials flying as secondary payloads.[4]

Gene Roddenberry (third from the right) in 1976 with most of the cast of Star Trek at the rollout of the Space Shuttle Enterprise at the Rockwell International plant at Palmdale, California, US

The first space burial occurred in 1992 when the NASA Space Shuttle Columbia (mission STS-52) carried a sample of Gene Roddenberry's cremated remains into space and returned them to Earth.[5]
The first private space burial, Celestis' Earthview 01: The Founders Flight, was launched on April 21, 1997. An aircraft departing from the Canary Islands carried a Pegasus rocket containing samples of the remains of 24 people to an altitude of 11 km (6.8 mi) above the Atlantic Ocean. The rocket then carried the remains into an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 578 km (359 mi) and a perigee of 551 km (342 mi), orbiting the Earth once every 96 minutes until re-entry on May 20, 2002, northeast of Australia.  Famous people on this flight included Roddenberry and Timothy Leary.[6]


Short flights that cross the boundary of space without attempting to reach orbital velocity are a cost-effective method of space burial. The remains do not burn up and are either recovered or lost.


The first moon burial was that of Eugene Merle Shoemaker, a portion of whose cremated remains were flown to the Moon by NASA.[7] Shoemaker's former colleague Carolyn Porco, a University of Arizona professor, proposed and produced the tribute of having Shoemaker's ashes launched aboard the NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft.[8] Ten days after Shoemaker's passing, Porco had the go-ahead from NASA administrators and delivered the ashes to the Lunar Prospector Mission Director Scott Hubbard at the NASA Ames Research Center.[7][9] The ashes were accompanied by a piece of brass foil inscribed with an image of Comet Hale–Bopp, an image of a Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, and a passage from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.[7]  The Lunar Prospector spacecraft was launched on January 6, 1998, and impacted the south polar region of the Moon on July 31, 1999.[10]
Missions to the Moon are proposed by both Elysium Space[11] and Celestis as part of a mission by Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh. The first mission in January 2024 failed to reach the Moon due to a failure of the spacecraft and instead reentered Earth's atmosphere shortly after.[12]


In 2014, Celestis launched Celestis Pets, a pet memorial spaceflight service for animal cremated remains.[13] Prior to then, Bismarck, a Monroe, Washington police dog may have flown on a 2012 memorial spaceflight. When this news broke, Celestis' president said that if dog ashes were on the rocket, the person who supplied the cremated remains likely violated the contract they signed with Celestis.[14]

Dedicated spacecraft[edit]
On May 17, 2017, Elysium Space announced the world's first memorial flight involving a dedicated spacecraft. The CubeSat was placed as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of a dedicated rideshare mission called SSO-A planned by Spaceflight. The launch took place from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on December 3, 2018.[15] The launch was successful, however, industry sources have noted that the Elysium Star spacecraft remained attached to the deployer due to a failure to procure proper licensing.[16]

Space burial businesses[edit]
Space burial businesses generally refer to their service offering as "Memorial Spaceflight".




Business name

Date established

Operating status

Destinations offered


Celestis

1994

Active

Launch to space and return to Earth, into Earth orbit, to lunar surface, into deep-space


Elysium Space

2013

Inactive

Launch into Earth orbit, to lunar surface


Aura Flights

2019

Active

Launch to space and return to Earth


Beyond Burials

2020

Active

Launch to space and return to Earth, into Earth orbit, to lunar surface, into deep-space


Spaceflight history[edit]




Launch date

Mission provider

Launch vehicle

Destination

Remains samples

Results


2020~


May 15, 2022

Celestis

Falcon 9

Earth orbit

Remains samples[17]

Success


April 1, 2022

Space NTK

Falcon 9

Earth orbit

Remains samples[18]

Success


2010-2019


2018[19]

Elysium Space

Falcon 9

Earth orbit

Remains samples

Planned


November 3, 2015

Elysium Space

SPARK

Earth orbit

Remains samples

Failure


December 5, 2014

NASA

Delta IV Heavy

Earth orbit

Remains sample of NASA Orion engineer[20]

Success


May 22, 2012

Celestis

Falcon 9

Earth orbit

Over 300 remains samples[21][22]

Success


2000-2009


August 2, 2008

Celestis

Falcon 1

Earth orbit

Over 200 remains samples[23]

Failure


September 21, 2001

Celestis

Taurus rocket

Earth orbit

43 remains samples[24]

Failure


1990-1999


December 20, 1999

Celestis

Taurus rocket

Earth orbit

36 remains samples[25]

Success


February 10, 1998

Celestis

Taurus rocket

Earth orbit

30 remains samples[26]

Success


April 21, 1997

Celestis

Pegasus rocket

Earth orbit

24 remains samples[6]

Success


October 22, 1992

NASA

Space Shuttle Columbia

Earth orbit

Remains sample of Gene Roddenberry[5]

Success






Launch Date

Mission Provider

Launch Vehicle

Destination

Remains samples

Results


2010~


2018[27]

Elysium Space

Falcon 9

Lunar surface

Remain samples

Planned


Not available[28]

Celestis

Details not available

Lunar surface

Remain samples

Planned


1990-1999


January 6, 1998

NASA

Athena II/Lunar Prospector

Lunar surface

Remains sample of Eugene Shoemaker[7][10]

Success





Launch Date

Mission Provider

Launch Vehicle

Destination

Remains samples

Results


2000~2009


January 19, 2006

NASA

Atlas V/New Horizons

Deep space

Remains sample of Clyde Tombaugh[29]

Success





Launch Date

Mission Provider

Launch Vehicle

Remains samples

Results


2010~


October 23, 2014

Celestis

SpaceLoft XL

24 remains samples[30]

Success


June 21, 2013

Celestis

SpaceLoft XL

31 remains samples[31]

Success


May 20, 2011

Celestis

SpaceLoft XL

Over 8 remains samples[32]

Success


May 4, 2010

Celestis

SpaceLoft XL

Over 19 remains samples[33]

Success


2000-2009


May 2, 2009

Celestis

SpaceLoft XL

16 remains samples[34]

Failure


April 28, 2007

Celestis

SpaceLoft XL

Over 200 remains samples[35]

Success


September 29, 2004

Scaled Composites

SpaceShipOne

Remains sample of the mother of SpaceShipOne's designer, Burt Rutan.[36]

Success


Notable individuals buried in space[edit]
James Doohan (left) visiting NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center with pilot Bruce Peterson April 13, 1967 in front of the Northrop M2-F2.
Launched into Earth orbit[edit]
Gene Roddenberry (1921–1991), creator of Star Trek.[6][37]
Gerard K. O'Neill (1927–1992), space physicist.[6][38]
Krafft Ehricke (1917–1984), rocket scientist.[6][39]
Timothy Leary (1920–1996), American writer, psychologist, psychedelic drug advocate and Harvard University professor.[6][40]
L. Gordon Cooper
James Doohan (1920– 2005), actor best known for his portrayal of Scotty in the television and film series Star Trek.[22][41] Celestis also launched him into space in 2007[42][35] and in 2008.[23][43]
Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr. (1927–2004), American astronaut. He was one of the original Mercury Seven pilots in the Project Mercury program, the first crewed space effort by the United States.[35]
Launched into outer space[edit]
Nichelle Nichols (1932-2022), American actress best known for her role as Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek was launched on the maiden flight of the Vulcan Centaur.
Eugene Merle Shoemaker (1928–1997), astronomer and co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9.[44][45]
Clyde Tombaugh (1906–1997), American astronomer and discoverer of Pluto in 1930. A small sample of Tombaugh's ashes are aboard New Horizons, the first spacecraft to attempt to pass by and photograph Pluto. This is the first sample of human cremated remains which will escape the solar system.[29]
Planned space burials[edit]
Leiji Matsumoto (1938–2023), Japanese creator of numerous anime and manga series including Galaxy Express 999, Space Battleship Yamato and Space Pirate Captain Harlock, announced his intention to have a symbolic portion of his cremated remains to be launched into space on a future Elysium Space mission.[46]
Leiji Matsumoto at a book signing event in 2014
Majel Barrett (1932–2008), American actress who played Christine Chapel in the original Star Trek series; wife of Gene Roddenberry. A symbolic portion of both her cremated remains and Roddenberry's cremated remains will be launched into space on a future Celestis mission.[47][48]
William R. Pogue (1930–2014), American astronaut.[47][49]
Luise Clayborn Kaish (1925–2013), American sculptor and painter.[47][50]





^ "The Jameson Satellite" (Amazing Stories, July 1931; Amazing Stories, April 1956 (reprint); Ace Books collection #1, 1967.

^ goodgoodbye.com/film-and-video-reviews/funeral-films-the-loved-one/

^ John Hinterberger: The Seattle Times Sunday Magazine, page 3, April 3, 1977.

^ "Celetis Launch Manifest". CelestisInc. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ a b "Shuttle bore Roddenberry's ashes". Rome News-Tribune. April 29, 1994. Retrieved March 13, 2014.

^ a b c d e f "Celestis Memorial Spaceflights – The Founders Flight". CelestisInc. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ a b c d Stiles, Lorie (January 6, 1998). "Eugene Shoemaker Ashes Carried on Lunar Prospector". University of Arizona News Services. Retrieved August 6, 2015.

^ Porco, Carolyn. "The Eugene M. Shoemaker Tribute". Diamond Sky Productions. Retrieved June 8, 2013.

^ Porco, Carolyn C. (February 2000). "Destination Moon". Astronomy. Retrieved June 8, 2013. The next day, I drove to Phoenix for a flight to Ames Research Center in California, where the following day, a Monday, I delivered the whole package to Scott Hubbard.

^ a b Williams, David. "Lunar Prospector". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Retrieved August 6, 2015.

^ Clark, Liat (August 12, 2015). "This startup will send your loved one's ashes to the Moon". WIRED UK. Retrieved May 22, 2017.

^ "US company's failed Peregrine Moon lander believed to have burned up after re-entry over Australia". ABC. Retrieved January 19, 2024.

^ "Home". Celestis Pets.

^ Rikki King (May 24, 2012). "Dog's ashes may have been sneaked on to space flight". Everett Herald. Retrieved June 2, 2012.

^ Clark, Stephen (December 3, 2018). "SpaceX launches swarm of satellites, flies rocket for third time". Spaceflight Now.

^ Foust, Jeff (August 23, 2019). "Spaceflight herded 64 cubesats onto a single Falcon 9 and has the scratch marks to prove it". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023.

^ "Ascension Flight". Celestis. Retrieved May 29, 2022.

^ Yoshikawa, Mitsuko (June 18, 2021). "｢宇宙葬｣を亡き娘にプレゼントした夫婦の心情". Toyo Keizai (in Japanese). Retrieved May 17, 2022.

^ Kharpal, Arjun (May 17, 2017). "You can send your loved one's ashes into space on Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket for $2,500". CNBC. Retrieved May 22, 2017.

^ Cloherty, Megan (December 5, 2014). "Man's remains travel to space with NASA's Orion". WTOP News. Retrieved December 7, 2014. Father of two and aeronautical engineer, 37-year-old Patrick O'Malley worked for more than a decade towards the launch of the Orion capsule.

^ Moskowitz, Clara (May 22, 2012). "Ashes of Star Trek's 'Scotty' Ride Private Rocket into Space". New York: Space.com. Archived from the original on May 23, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2012.

^ a b "The New Frontier Memorial Spaceflight". CelestisInc. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ a b "Celestis Memorial Spaceflights – The Explorers Flight". CelestisInc. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014. The Explorers Flight, carrying cremated remains samples of over 200 people, was launched August 2, 2008 aboard a Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Falcon 1 rocket.

^ "Celestis Memorial Spaceflights – The Odyssey Flight". CelestisInc. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "Celestis Memorial Spaceflights – The Millennial Flight". CelestisInc. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "Celestis Memorial Spaceflights – The Ad Astra Flight". CelestisInc. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "Launch Schedule". Elysium Space. Retrieved May 22, 2017.

^ "Luna 02 Flight | Memorial Spaceflights". Celestis. Retrieved May 22, 2017.

^ a b Leary, Warren E. (January 20, 2006). "NASA Launches Spacecraft on the First Mission to Pluto – New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "Celestis Memorial Spaceflights – The Conestoga Flight". CelestisInc. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved October 29, 2014.

^ "Celestis Memorial Spaceflights – The Centennial Flight". CelestisInc. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "The Goddard Flight". Celestis. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "The Pioneer Flight". Celestis. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "The Discovery Flight". Celestis. Retrieved March 13, 2014.

^ a b c "Legacy Flight". Celestis Memorial Spaceflights. Retrieved March 13, 2014.

^ Harwood, William (September 29, 2004). "SpaceShipOne takes wild suborbital flight". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved April 1, 2015. At the post-flight news conference, Rutan revealed his mother's ashes were on board SpaceShipOne "and I was very very proud to have carried her," Melvill said.

^ "Gene Roddenberry & Majel Roddenberry". Celestis. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "Gerald K. O'Neil – Participant on board The Founders Flight". Celestis. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "Krafft A. Ehricke". Celestis. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "Timothy Francis Leary". Celestis. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "James Doohan". Celestis. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "Tribute to Jimmy". Celestis. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "Doohan". Celestis. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "Luna Flight 01". Celestis. Archived from the original on March 14, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "Luna 01 Flight". Celestis. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

^ "流れ星供養". Elysium Space (in Japanese).

^ a b c "Participants in Future Flights". Celestis. Archived from the original on May 21, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2015.

^ "Gene & Majel Roddenberry - Participants on board a Future Celestis Memorial Spaceflight". CelestisInc. Retrieved May 19, 2015.

^ "William Reid Pogue - Participant on board a Future Celestis Memorial Spaceflight". CelestisInc. Retrieved May 19, 2015.

^ "Luise Clayborn Kaish - Participant on board a Future Celestis Memorial Spaceflight". CelestisInc. Retrieved May 19, 2015.



The Real Elysium – Send Your Loved One Into Space for $2k, PandoDaily, 2013
Have A Space Burial As Elysium Sends Your Ashes Into Orbit, TechCrunch, 2013
Ash Scattering: Non-Traditional Ways To Be Memorialized, Huffington Post, 2012
The Ultimate One-Way Ticket, Wired Magazine, 2006
Death Is a Long, Strange Trip, Wired Magazine, 2006





