SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off with cremated remains of 47 people in memorial spaceflight

SpaceX launched its Transporter-5 mission in its Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 12:05 am (IST) on May 26. Meant to be a ride-share mission, but it is also being remembered as a memorial flight as it carried a portion of cremated remains of 47 people into space. The remains headed to the orbit attached to the launched satellites thanks to space company Celestis, which offers space cremation services. 

The Celestis memorial spaceflight mission was named the “Ascension Flight” and honoured 47 people from five different countries. Notably, this marked the 18th memorial spaceflight by Celestis in the 22nd mission SpaceX has conducted this year.

Family members receive devices for tracking their loved ones in space

The Transporter-5 mission launched a total of 59 spacecraft into orbit including CubeSats, microsats, non-deploying hosted payloads and orbital transfer vehicles. Celestis CEO and co-founder Charles Chafer had revealed in his statement that the cremated remains will be attached to a satellite and the satellite would orbit the Earth for at least a decade. The family members have also received a tracking device to locate the remains of their loved ones in space. 

After ten years, the satellites would be decommissioned and the remains would burn up during re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere. Ahead of the launch, Celestis had even organised a three-day memorial until the launch day which saw around 160 people arrive in Florida’s Brevard county. 

One of the buyers of a spot in Celestis was Michael Dufton whose mother had worked with NASA about 60 years ago. “She was invited to participate in that, and that was one of her greatest regrets in life — that she never got to go to outer space. At the end of 10 years, it will eventually return to the atmosphere as a shooting star along with all those on board”, Dufton said as per WKMG. 

The company, which was established by Charles Chafer in 1994 has set the cost of launching the remains starting from $2,500 which extends to $12,500 (approx. Rs 1,92,000 to Rs 9,62,500) depending on the length of the journey.