This Company Will Fly the Ashes of the Dead into Space at an Affordable Price

CubeSat to fly ashes of the deceased in space (photo: dok. Space Beyond)

JAKARTA - A startup company called Space Beyond announced an unusual program. Named Ashes to Space, this program will fly the ashes of the deceased into Earth orbit.

This service is scheduled to launch using the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in October 2027. Although not the first, Space Beyond believes that its service is able to compete with competitors because it is priced starting at 249 dollars (Rp4.1 million).

According to Ryan Mitchell, a former NASA and Blue Origin engineer who founded the company, the cost of a conventional funeral is often too expensive. Therefore, Mitchell wants to offer a cost reduction through space access.

In addition to the fact that the cost can be cheaper thanks to the rideshare system using CubeSat type mini satellites, space burial is considered more meaningful.

"I don't intend to take over the world, and I don't intend to make billions of dollars out of this," Mitchell told TechCrunch, quoted on Saturday, January 24. Mitchell emphasized that his main focus is helping grieving families.

Each customer can only send one gram of the deceased's ashes to be placed inside the cube satellite. Because the weight limit in space is very tight, the amount of ashes sent is still very limited.

The satellite will be in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 550 kilometers for about five years. During this period, families can track the position of the satellite as it passes across the night sky above their homes.

Mitchell explained that the ashes of the deceased would not actually be scattered in space to avoid creating space debris. The reason is that scattering ashes in orbit can endanger spacecraft.

After five years, the satellite and its contents will return to the Earth's atmosphere and burn up naturally. Reservations for this program have begun to be opened to the general public who are interested in the concept of cosmic burial.