The Cremated Remains of 100 People Have Been Launched into Space on a SpaceX Rocket

The cremated remained of 100 individuals were launched into space in a memorial satellite by the company Elysium Space. Based out if San Francisco, the company placed samples of each person’s remains on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for $2,500 each.

The remains of average citizens are joined by veterans and other aerospace enthusiasts who believed their loved ones would enjoy being “within the poetry of the starry sky,” Elysium Spaces said in an emailed statement. The ashes, each in an individual capsule, were placed in a 4-inch square satellite called a cubeseat, which will orbit the Earth for 4 years before it inevitably falls back, according to Elysium Space Founder and CEO Thomas Civeit.  Sixty-four small satellites from thirty-four different companies were aboard the rocket, part of a rideshare mission organized by Spaceflight.

Families will be able to track the process of the satellite as it orbits the planet, knowing that their loved ones is above them in the stars.

See Dakin Andone, The Cremated Remains of 100 People Have Been Launched into Space on a SpaceX Rocket, CNN, December 3, 2018.