Celestis has been a pioneering force in space-burial services since 1994.
The Houston-based company has sent the DNA and other remains of loved ones, pets and celebrities into outer space on a series of missions using a variety of rockets, including United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur.
Such vehicles have carried the cremated remains and/or DNA samples of a number of “Star Trek” legends, including Nichelle Nichols, DeForest Kelley, Gene Roddenberry and his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry and James “Scotty” Doohan. Celestis has also helped fly “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” visual effects legend Douglas Trumbull and the symbolic remains of four former U.S. presidents: George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, aboard last year’s deep-space “Enterprise Flight.”
Now, Celestis has announced that it has entered into a new launch services collaboration with European spacecraft manufacturer The Exploration Company (TEC).
TEC will host a special Celestis Memorial Spaceflight payload on its upcoming “Mission Possible” flight, which is slated to blast off atop a Falcon 9 rocket on SpaceX’s Transporter 14 rideshare mission on Monday (June 23) at 5:18 p.m. EDT (2118 GMT) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Perseverance Flight will carry over 150 flight capsules containing cremated remains and DNA samples from customers around the globe.
It will be TEC’s second demonstrator prior to the inaugural mission of its Nyx Earth orbital launch vehicle, which is scheduled to lift off and dock with the International Space Station sometime in 2028. Mission Possible will mark the first time that a TEC spacecraft hauls customer payloads to orbit.
According to Celestis, Perseverance will reach low Earth orbit and complete two or three circuits of our planet before reentering the atmosphere. The memorial capsules will then splash down in the Pacific Ocean, to be recovered and returned to clients as cherished keepsakes. This will be Celestis’ 12th such “Earth Rise” flight, and its 25th space mission overall.
“Celestis is pleased to offer a new type of Earth Rise mission, thanks to The Exploration Company,” Charles Chafer, the company’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Our participants’ capsules will orbit the Earth and return via the Mission Possible capsule, creating a spectacular liftoff and recovery experience.”
Celestis will also be creating history, making three-year-old Matteo Barth the youngest German (and youngest European overall) to send his DNA into space. Inside TEC’s Mission Possible capsule, the child will symbolically join Dieter Barth, his late grandfather, when they’re launched, in honor of the older man’s lifelong interest in space and exploration.
Editor’s note: This article was updated on June 22 at 5:10 p.m. EDT to note the change of launch dates to Monday, June 23, 2025.