Celestis

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This article is about the company. For the city, see Jerusalem.

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Celestis, Inc.
Subsidiary
Industry Space burials
Founded 1994
Founders Charles M. Chafer
R. Chan Tysor
Headquarters Houston, Texas, United States
Parent Space Services Inc.

Celestis, Inc. is a company that launches cremated human remains into space, a procedure known as a space burial. It is a subsidiary of the private space company Space Services Inc.[1] The company purchases launches as a secondary payload on various rockets, and launches samples of a person's cremated remains. Launching an individual's entire cremated remains (which weigh between four and eight pounds)[2] would be prohibitively expensive for most people, so Celestis launches 1 gram or 7 gram samples of cremated remains so as to provide an affordable service.[3]

Celestis has flown a number of notable participants over the years. Its first flight -- The Founders Flight—carried cremated remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and 1960s icon Timothy Leary into Earth orbit. Also on board were remains of physicist and space visionary Gerard K. O'Neill, noted rocket scientist Krafft A. Ehricke, and 20 others.[4] Dr. Eugene Shoemaker—a famous planetary geologist and co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 -- was launched to the moon on NASA's Lunar Prospector mission in 1998: Celestis helped friends of Dr. Shoemaker include a sample of his cremated remains on that mission.[5] Mercury 7 astronaut L. Gordon Cooper,[6] Star Trek actor James Doohan ("Mr. Scott"),[7] and a host of others from various walks of life were launched on board The Legacy Flight in 2007.[8] Titanic explorer Ralph White was on board the Discovery[9] and Pioneer[10] flights.

Family members and friends of flight participants usually can attend the launch. Celestis usually arranges for a tour of the launch facility and hosts a non-sectarian memorial service prior to the launch.[3] Celestis also helps people prearrange their own memorial spaceflights for the future.[11]

Missions

Launch date/time (GMT) Rocket Flight name Orbit Notable individuals Remarks
21 April 1997, 11:59 Pegasus-XL Founders[12] Earth orbit Beauford Franklin, Rocket Scientist
Gene Roddenberry, writer
Gerard O'Neill, physicist
Krafft Ehricke, rocket scientist
Timothy Leary, psychologist, writer		 Reached Earth orbit; Reentered atmosphere May 20, 2002
7 January 1998, 02:29 Athena Luna-01[12] Lunar Eugene Merle Shoemaker, astronomer Attached to Lunar Prospector
Landed[citation needed] 31 July 1999
10 February 1998, 13:20 Taurus Ad Astra[12] Earth orbit Reached Earth orbit; Still on orbit
21 December 1999, 07:13 Taurus Millennial[12] Earth orbit Charles Oren Bennett, illustrator Reached Earth orbit; Still on orbit
21 September 2001, 18:49 Taurus Odyssey[12] Earth orbit Failed to reach orbit
28 April 2007, 14:56 SpaceLoft XL Legacy Earthrise (suborbital) Gordon Cooper, astronaut
James Doohan, Star Trek actor		 Reached space and returned to Earth, as planned
3 August 2008, 03:34 Falcon 1 Explorers Earth orbit Gordon Cooper, astronaut
James Doohan, Star Trek actor		 Failed to reach orbit[13]
2 May 2009, 14:00 SpaceLoft XL Discovery Earthrise (suborbital) Ralph White, explorer[14] Failed to reach space[15][16]
4 May 2010, 12:41 SpaceLoft XL Pioneer Earthrise (suborbital) Ralph White, explorer[17] Reached space and returned to Earth, as planned
20 May 2011, 13:21 SpaceLoft XL Goddard Earthrise (suborbital) Reached space and returned to Earth, as planned
22 May 2012, 07:44 Falcon 9 New Frontier[18] Earth orbit Gordon Cooper, astronaut
James Doohan, Star Trek actor		 Reached orbit, on a canister attached to the Falcon 9 launch vehicle's second stage.[19] As such, it is on a rapidly decaying orbital trajectory that will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere in about a year's time.[19] It carried the ashes of 308 people, 1-gram per person.[20]
21 June 2013, 11:57 SpaceLoft XL Centennial[21] Earthrise (suborbital) Candy Johnson, entertainer Reached space and returned to Earth, as planned
23 October 2014, 13:33 SpaceLoft XL Conestoga[22] Earthrise (suborbital) CJ Twomey Reached space and returned to Earth, as planned

Future flights

In 2014 a memorial service for the late Majel Barrett Roddenberry, Star Trek's "Nurse Chapel," the voice of the computer on board the fictional starship Enterprise, and Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation, will fly with her late husband Gene Roddenberry together, "on an infinite journey into deep space aboard their Voyager Memorial Spaceflight Service...will carry their spirits, their memories, and the message of their life’s work into the cosmos." -Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry II.[23]

References

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  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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