Don’t let gravity keep you Earth-bound when you die.
For around the same price as a casket, California-based company Elysium Space will launch your ashes into space.
The company offers an alternative celebration of life in one of the most beautiful landscapes, Elysium Space CEO Thomas Civeit said.
Civeit founded the company after working on NASA missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the future James Webb Space Telescopes.
“Elysium Space is a unique team of space and funeral experts, combining experience from major NASA space missions and deep-rooted funeral profession knowledge,” according to the company’s website.
Packages start at $2,490 for the Shooting Star Memorial, in which ashes are released in a pod to orbit the Earth and then break up into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Family and friends will be able to track the ashes with a mobile app as it orbits the Earth for about two years.
The company is tapping into a growing market giving civilians access to space, even if it is after death.
“Over the last 50 years, family needs have been transitioning from funeral rituals to life celebration ceremonies,” Civeit said in an email to News 6. “Cremation is on the rise, about 50 percent in the U.S., and there is a need for new inspiring services.”
About 100 people have signed up so far to send ashes on Elysium’s Star II mission, Civeit said.
Elysium’s memorial pods are managed by Spaceflight, a company that finds space on launch vehicles for small payloads and satellites. Think of it as ride-sharing into space.
Spaceflight buys unused space on other company-led missions and sells them to clients. In 2015, Spaceflight purchased a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and on Wednesday the company announced it bought a Rocket Lab Electron rocket.
Elysium’s shooting star memorial pods will be on that Spaceflight-owned SpaceX Falcon 9 ride-sharing mission, called SSO-A, scheduled for a 2018 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a spokesperson for Spaceflight said.
After liftoff and once the rocket reaches its planned orbit, about 310 miles above Earth, the spacecraft will deploy and start orbiting the Earth, Civeit said.
The price of the contract with SpaceFlight was confidential, but a SpaceX Falcon 9 runs about $62 million. SpaceX does offer discounts for a flight-proven rocket. The first pre-flown Falcon 9 relaunched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in March on a mission for satellite company SES.
Other companies that have purchased space on SSO-A include previous Google satellite startup Terra Bella and Deep Space Industries.
The mission is at 90 percent capacity right now, Christie Melby, spokeswoman for Spaceflight told News 6.
Individuals or companies can buy rides to space through Spaceflight starting at $250 up to $28,000 or more, according to its website. Payment plans are available with a 10 percent down payment.
For those looking to send ashes to the moon, Elysium is partnering with Astrobotic Technology to hitch a ride on its lunar robot, the Peregrine Lander.
Astrobotic is another company offering a more affordable chance to send scientific and personal payloads to the moon. Prices start at $1.2 million per kilogram to the moon.
Estimated to launch in 2021, the Peregrine Lander will deliver payloads to lunar orbit and the lunar surface on each mission, according to Astrobotic.com.
The Lunar Memorial package is $9,950, which is a few thousand dollars more than the average cost of a funeral plus the cost of cremation.
"The Lunar Memorial is a service that delivers a symbolic portion of remains to the surface of the Moon, helping to create the quintessential commemoration," the service description reads "Through the everlasting splendor and soft illumination of the Moon, this majestic memorial is with you and your family forever."
Options for humans to visit space, other than becoming a NASA astronaut or paying SpaceX CEO Elon Musk an undisclosed amount of money for a ride, are quickly growing through commercial options.
They just won't be alive when they get there.