Space burial

The Space burial is a burial in which a small portion of cremated ashes is carried into space.

On 21 April 1997 brought a Pegasus XL Air Force Base Gran Canaria ( Gran Canaria Airport ) from the first 24 mini boxes on behalf of the company Celestis into space. So far is transported into space because of the high transport costs of cremation only a portion of the ashes. So far (as of 06 /2001) has only the American company Celestis performed Space burials. Other companies only send a digital message with photos or other information about the dead into space.

Space burials

Celebrities whose ashes were carried are listed under the respective flights.

  • April 21, 1997: 24 micro urns in a low Earth orbit aboard a Pegasus XL rocket. Krafft Ehricke, space pioneer
  • Timothy Leary, psychologist and "drug guru "
  • Gerard O'Neill, space pioneer
  • Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek
  • Eugene Shoemaker, astronomer

The price of such a space burial to spend a portion of the ashes into orbit is given by commercial providers with 11,000 euros.

Suborbital flights

Also on suborbital sounding rockets, the ash was carried by the deceased. Since the ash is returned to the payload of the rocket, it is not a space burial in the true sense.

Also, a portion of the ashes of the late 2005 actor James Doohan, the actor of Scotty from Star Trek, was carried on 28 April 2007 in such a flight into space. The rocket landed by parachute in the desert of New Mexico and was salvaged on 16 May 2007.

Moon funeral

From commercial vendors are also deals that a symbolic part of the ashes from the cremation in a capsule with dedication takes up the last trip to the moon. The price of such a shipment is 25,000 euros.

Criticism

Due to the volume limitations, only a fraction of remaining in the cremation residue is used for such enterprises ever. According to the ethical principles of the International Cremation Federation (ICF ), however, applies " The ashes of a person is fundamentally indivisible. " This raises the international association and its members, such as the Federal Association of German undertakers (BDB ), generally against the commercial exploitation of products or Rückstanden of cremation.

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