A company planning to send the ashes of dead people into orbit said on Tuesday that it will hitch a flight on one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets.
San Francisco-based Elysium Space describes itself as a “memorial spaceflight” company made of ex-NASA personnel and funeral experts. The business aims to “change the vision of death from the underground to the celestial.”
Each customer who signs up will receive a kit containing a custom ash capsule to collect the cremated remains of their loved one. This is then sent back to Elysium Space and is placed in the company’s spacecraft. This will be launched into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
“For about 2 years, our memorial spacecraft will respectfully and peacefully orbit the Earth,” Elysium Space CEO Thomas Civeit, told CNBC by email on Tuesday.
“Eventually, in a last poetic moment, the spacecraft will harmlessly re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere, blazing as a shooting star.”
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Family and friends can follow the progress of the spacecraft via app.
So far the company has 100 participants booked. Each reservation starts at $2,490.
The launch date is in the hands of SpaceX, Civeit said, and there is no time set as of yet. It will take place at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
