Celestis

Celestis is a company that launches cremated human remains into space, a procedure known as a space burial. It is an affiliate company of Space Services Inc. The company purchases launches as a secondary payload on various rockets, and launches samples of many people's cremated remains on one launch. Launching an individual's entire cremated remains (which weigh between four to eight pounds) 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.

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. 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. Mercury 7 astronaut L. Gordon Cooper,Star Trek actor James Doohan ("Mr. Scott"), and a host of others from various walks of life were launched on board The Legacy Flight in 2007.Titanic explorer Ralph White was on board the Discovery and Pioneer flights.