Now there's a new and unique way to properly send-off a deceased pet. Celestis will soon offer a service that puts your pet's ashes in a capsule and sends them off to space.
The Texas-based company is not new to the memorial space flight business and has offered a similar service for human remains since 1997. In fact, the company blasted the ashes of "Star Trek" television series creator Gene Roddenberry into space last year, along with the remains of his wife, as well as an actor from that series, James Doohan (who portrayed Scotty).
The company is now branching out to include pets as part of its services.
"I think we're also creating some new cultural norms," said Steve Eisele, director of Celestis Pets. "Humanity has a lot of different rituals. We think we take our rituals with us when we end up traveling to different places whether they're on this planet or off the planet."
For just $995, you can send part of your pets remains into space. Once the flight is complete, the capsule returns to Earth, along with your pet's ashes. A second service, at $4,995, sends the capsule to Earth's orbit, where it will eventually fall and burn up in the planet's atmosphere.
If you have loftier ambitions for your pet's remains and want to send them to the moon, it will cost considerably more: a whopping $12,500. However, that's because the trip is a little more complicated.
"The Apollo missions only took three days to get to the moon, so there could be a faster path," Eisele said. "It all depends on the launch. It could take as little as three days, and up to years based on which trajectory is taken."
Celestis will host a special memorial service before blast-off and allow pet-owners to watch the launch, depending on its location. The company also offers video footage of the launch to pet owners, as well as a link where you can track the spacecraft in real time.
Celestis will launch its first pet memorial spaceflight in October, which will include the remains of an Australian shepherd appropriately named Apollo.
