The Celestis Blog - Page 3176 of 3179 - The blog for Celestis Memorial Spaceflights

The Mercury 7 and Celestis

Mercury 7 news conference — During the April 9, 1959 NASA news conference that introduced the Mercury 7 astronauts, they were asked, “Who wants to be the first man launched into space?” All seven raised their hands — Walter Schirra and John Glenn raising both hands. From the left are Donald Slayton, Alan Shepard, Schirra, Gus Grissom, Glenn, Gordon Cooper and Scott Carpenter.
Image Credit: NASA

In a Washington D.C. news conference on April 9, 1959, NASA announced the names of the first group of astronauts — the Mercury 7. Two of those space pioneers would figure into the history of Celestis and its parent company, Space Services Holdings, Inc.

Charles Chafer, David Hannah, Jr. and Deke Slayton — Conestoga 1 post launch press conference, September 9, 1982. Seated from right: Deke Slayton (retired Mercury 7 astronaut and SSIA president), David Hannah, Jr. (SSIA founder and chairman), Charles M. Chafer (president of today’s Celestis, Inc.).

Under the direction of former Mercury 7 astronaut Donald K. “Deke” Slayton, Space Services, Inc. of America (SSIA) made history as the first private enterprise to launch a rocket into outer space: Conestoga 1. On Sept. 9, 1982, SSIA successfully launched its Conestoga I rocket from Matagorda Island, Texas. The launch marked the world’s first privately funded mission to space, and would lead to the creation of a billion dollar market for private aerospace firms.

Prior to liftoff, the SSIA crew underwent the process of clearing all legal and regulatory hurdles for the launch, laying the foundation for future commercial space launches. The effort was primarily funded by David Hannah, Jr., Toddie Lee Wynne, and other donors confident in their ability to succeed. Following the launch, dozens of aspiring firms entered the space business in an effort to get a portion of the substantial profits to be had, thus establishing the commercial space industry.

Today’s Space Services Holdings, Inc. (SSHI) a corporate descendant of Hannah’s original company, has conducted over a dozen commercial space missions, has two spacecraft on orbit, and is partnered with major aerospace companies and large, public Internet firms interested in tapping into new commercial space markets. SSHI continues to strive toward bolstering the commercial space industry to ensure that, 30 years down the road, it experiences the same significant growth that followed the Conestoga launch over 30 years ago.

Read Deke Slayton’s NASA biography…

NASA photo of Mercury 7 astronaut L. Gordon Cooper

L. Gordon “Gordo” Cooper became a leading celebrity of the new Space Age when he was selected as one of the Mercury 7 astronauts in April 1959. In May 1963 he piloted the Faith 7 spacecraft on the Mercury 9 mission – the last of the Project Mercury missions. In August 1965 he commanded the Gemini 5 mission, where he and astronaut Charles Conrad set a new space endurance record at the time, orbiting Earth for approximately eight days. The mission demonstrated that astronauts could survive trips to the Moon and back. This flight also made Gordo the first human to fly on two missions on Earth orbit. Additionally, Gordo served as a backup astronaut for the Gemini 12 and Apollo 10 missions. All told, Gordo logged 222 hours in space. Gordo left NASA and retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 1970.

After his passing in 2004, his family decided to honor Gordo’s life with the Celestis memorial spaceflight service. Gordo was a participant on board Celestis’ 2007 Legacy Flight, 2008 Explorers Flight and 2012 New Frontier Flight that orbited Earth.

Read L. Gordon Cooper’s Celestis biography…

Launch vehicles that have carried cremated remains into space

Celestis has conducted the overwhelming majority of memorial spaceflights — and is the only private company to have done so. Here’s a list of launch vehicles that have been used to carry cremated remains into space:

Space Shuttle — A portion of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s cremated remains flew on NASA’s space shuttle Columbia (STS-52) in 1992 and were returned to Earth.

Pegasus — In April 1997, 24 cremated remains samples were launched into Earth orbit on an air-launched Pegasus rocket on board Celestis’ first memorial spaceflight, the “Founders Flight.” The Celestis memorial satellite orbited Earth until it re-entered the atmosphere in May 2002 northeast of Australia. Gene Roddenberry was on board this mission, and will — along with his wife, Majel — fly into deep space on board a Celestis Voyager Service mission.

Athena II — Celestis provided its first Luna Service mission by helping friends of noted planetary geologist Dr. Eugene Shoemaker include a symbolic portion of Dr. Shoemaker’s cremated remains on the NASA Lunar Prospector mission launched January 6, 1998 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Launch occurred on a three-stage Athena II rocket. On July 31, 1999 the spacecraft impacted the lunar surface inside a permanently shadowed crater near the south lunar pole, creating a permanent monument to Dr. Shoemaker.

The Earth viewed from the Moon — Celestis’ first mission to the Moon was launched on an Athena II launch vehicle in 1998.

Taurus — On February 10, 1998 30 cremated remains samples flew as a secondary payload launched into Earth orbit on a Taurus rocket. This mission — Celestis’ “Ad Astra Flight” — is still on orbit and has an estimated orbital lifetime of 240 years. The memorial satellite, along with Celestis’ 1999 “Millennial Flight,” can be tracked online.

SpaceShipOne — On September 29, 2004 SpaceShipOne carried the cremated remains of the mother of SpaceShipOne’s designer, Burt Rutan, on a suborbital flight that successfully flew in space and returned to Earth. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is designed, in part, on the basis of SpaceShipOne.

Atlas V — A sample of the cremated remains of astronomer Clyde Tombaugh were part of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft launched January 19, 2006 by an Atlas V rocket. This NASA mission will fly the discoverer of Pluto past that distant dwarf planet later this year.

UP Aerospace launch — Launch of Celestis’ first Earth Rise Service mission on board an UP Aerospace SpaceLoft XL launch vehicle

SpaceLoft XL — The first Celestis Earth Rise Service memorial spaceflight flew on April 28, 2007. The Earth Rise Service flies the cremated remains into space and returns them to Earth. After the mission each family receives the flown flight capsule, still containing the cremated remains. These annual missions occur from Spaceport America, New Mexico on an UP Aerospace SpaceLoft XL launch vehicle. The cremated remains samples of over 200 people were on board 2007’s “Legacy Flight,” including Mercury 7 astronaut L. Gordon Cooper and Star Trek actor James Doohan (“Scotty”). Both Cooper and Doohan later flew on Celestis’ Earth Orbit mission, the “New Frontier Flight,” and will fly on a future Voyager Service mission.

Delta IV Heavy — On December 5, 2014 NASA launched a cremated remains sample on the Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 on a Delta IV Heavy (ULA) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The person honored by this special arrangement was a Lockheed Martin aeronautical engineer who worked on the Orion project for over a decade.

Protected: How can I memorialize my loved one as a shooting star?

Can I prearrange a space funeral?

Couple holding hands on a beach — © Can Stock Photo

You’re fascinated with the idea of arranging to have your ashes launched into space, but you’re asking, “Can I prearrange a space funeral?” The short answer is, “Yes!”

Prearranging a funeral is a smart choice. You ensure that your wishes will be honored. Prearrangment also relieves your family of anguishing over what would be the most appropriate way to honor your life. With a preneed space funeral contract you lock in the price of your space burial: You need not worry about future price increases. What’s more, it’s simple to arrange. Prearranged funerals and memorial services are an increasingly popular option.

With Celestis, you can arrange to have your cremated remains launched into Earth orbit, to the Moon, or into deep space. Celestis can even fly your ashes into space and parachute them back to Earth: Your cremated remains will be returned to your family, still encapsulated in the spaceflight hardware that flew in space.

Celestis provides a preneed contract for each of its space burial services. You can download the contract from the Celestis website. Carefully review the contract with your family: This is a good way to ensure your family will clearly know your wishes when the time comes. You might also want to express your wishes for final disposition in your will.

A 10-20% deposit locks in the price of the memorial spaceflight service you choose. You can make periodic payments toward the balance of the contract, use insurance to pay for the balance of the service, or your estate can pay the balance owed at the time of need. Celestis offers a 10% discount for veterans. You can cancel at any time. Your money is deposited into a Trust account with the Houston branch of ClearPoint Federal Bank & Trust. This account is audited annually. In fact, Celestis received the highest ranking from the Texas Department of Banking, which audited Celestis’ preneed account on April 7, 2014.

Finally, consider attending a Celestis memorial spaceflight launch! Celestis launches from a variety of locations. Bring your family and friends and experience the excitement of liftoff!

For more information, contact Celestis at celestis.com/contact.asp.

X-Class Solar Flare

This spectacular image of the sun shows yet another powerful solar flare that the sun has emitted in recent weeks. The image was taken Nov. 19 by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. You can fly a symbolic portion of your love one’s cremated remains on board a new solar observing spacecraft, the Sunjammer solar sail, which will give us even earlier warning of solar storms that could adversely affect Earth. Reservations are open: Contact us for more information.

This solar flare peaked at 5:26 a.m. EST (10:26 am GMT) Nov. 19. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

This flare is classified as an X1.0 class flare. “X-class” denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.

This flare came from an active region numbered AR 1893 that is just rotating out of sight over the sun’s right side. Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment, since the sun’s normal 11-year activity cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum conditions. Humans have tracked this solar cycle continuously since it was discovered in 1843, and it is normal for there to be many flares a day during the sun’s peak activity.

Celestis expands to Las Vegas!

Las Vegas residents are used to living with the Sun. Now they can spend eternity orbiting it in space. The Davis Funeral Home Charleston Chapel in Central Las Vegas and Davis Funeral Home and Memorial Park Eastern Chapel are now offering families the opportunity to honor departed loved ones by flying cremated remains on a pioneering NASA mission that could orbit the Sun for millions of years. These two funeral homes are now the exclusive distributors in Las Vegas for Celestis Memorial Spaceflights, which has launched a dozen space burial missions since 1997.

The NASA mission, called “Sunjammer,” is scheduled for launch in January 2015. Celestis’ parent company, Space Services Holdings, Inc., is part of a team of leading aerospace companies and government agencies – led by NASA – that is developing and launching Sunjammer, the world’s largest solar sail. Like a sailboat that harnesses the wind on Earth, a solar sail uses a large area of reflective material to harness the physical pressure of sunlight in space. The slight, but steady force of sunlight is free energy that can push a spacecraft just about anywhere in zero-g.

Sunjammer will be the largest solar sail ever flown – almost 13,000 square feet in area, about one-third the size of a football field. The spacecraft will serve to protect humanity by monitoring the Sun for dangerous solar storms, which can cause serious, long-term damage to electric utilities on Earth and satellites in space. With enough early warning of impending solar storms, engineers can minimize the damage such storms pose to our increasingly high-tech civilization.

Another service that the two funeral homes are making available to Las Vegas residents is Celestis’ newest offerings, also on board Sunjammer: Celestis MindFiles™ and Celestis BioFiles™, which will permit people from around the world to include their photos, messages, music, art, and DNA on Sunjammer. Using Celestis MindFiles and BioFiles, Las Vegas families have the opportunity to take one last eternal trip together with their departed loved ones.

Star Trek's Majel and Gene Roddenberry — *Star Trek*‘s Majel and Gene Roddenberry

Also aboard will be the cremated remains of the late Gene Roddenberry (the creator of Star Trek), his wife Majel (the “First Lady of Star Trek“), James Doohan (who played “Scotty”), along with people from various walks of life.

Rod Roddenberry, member of Star Trek‘s first family and son of Gene and Majel Barrett Roddenberry, said about launching his parents on the upcoming Sunjammer mission, “I think it was pretty amazing that my father’s ashes got to go up on one the first Celestis flights in 1997 and I remember being very impressed that he was actually going to go where so few had gone before. So years later my mother spoke to Celestis and said that she would love to one day accompany my father up. I’m very happy that she will join my father on the Sunjammer Solar Sail mission very shortly. I was also really excited to hear that James Doohan (“Scotty” as in “Beam me up Scotty”) from Star Trek would be joining my mother and father on that same mission. ”

“We welcome Davis Funeral Home Charleston Chapel in Central Las Vegas and Davis Funeral Home and Memorial Park Eastern Chapel to the Celestis team,” said Charles M. Chafer, CEO of Space Services Holdings, Inc. and co-founder of Celestis. “We are impressed with their professionalism and their dedication to serving the families who use their services.”

“We are excited to offer the Celestis services to Las Vegas,” said Todd Noecker, General Manager of Davis Funeral Home Charleston Chapel in Central Las Vegas and Davis Funeral Home and Memorial Park Eastern Chapel. “As Las Vegas is home to the largest annual Star Trek convention in the world, the Sunjammer mission is a wonderful opportunity for Las Vegans to journey with Star Trek legends into the final frontier on a mission that will protect Earth.”

Visitors to these two Las Vegas funeral homes can learn more about Celestis and its various space burial options. In addition to the Sunjammer mission, families can have cremated remains launched into Earth orbit, to the Moon, or on a trip to space that returns the cremated remains to Earth. With this latter service, after the spaceflight occurs, the cremated remains – still sealed inside the space capsule – are returned to the family as a memento. Visitors can also pre-arrange a Celestis space burial for themselves.

For more information, see www.davisfuneralservices.com/locations.asp and www.Celestis.com.

Track Celestis Spacecraft Orbiting Earth

Celestis’ Earth Orbit service affordably launches a symbolic portion of cremated remains into space. Your loved one will venture into the final frontier as part of a real space mission, riding alongside a commercial or scientific satellite. The Celestis spacecraft is placed in Earth orbit where it remains until it reenters the atmosphere, harmlessly vaporizing like a shooting star in final tribute. You can even track the satellite as it revolves around our planet!

Satellite track — Display from n2yo.com tracking the Celestis *Millennial Flight* as it flies over the United States

We have launched four memorial spaceflight missions into Earth orbit, two of which you can still track on our website:

The Founders Flight was launched in 1997 and reentered the atmosphere in 2002. Read about the mission and its reentry.
The Ad Astra Flight was launched in 1998 and remains in Earth orbit. Track it live, in orbit!
The Millennial Flight was launched in 1999 and remains in Earth orbit. Track it live, in orbit!
The New Frontier Flight was launched in May 2012 and reentered the atmosphere the following month. Read about the mission and its reentry.

The two Celestis spacecraft currently orbiting Earth — the Ad Astra and Millennial missions — do so in what’s called a “polar orbit,” meaning their orbits take them over the north and south poles. Since the Earth rotates eastward beneath them, the two satellites fly over each point on Earth. (See illustration at right.) As of this writing, the Ad Astra memorial spacecraft takes approximately 101 minutes to complete each of its orbits, while the Millennial memorial spacecraft takes approximately 97 minutes to do so.

The length of time the spacecraft remains in orbit depends on a variety of factors: orbital altitude, the shape of the spacecraft, etc. While some missions may orbit the Earth for less than a day before reentry, others may orbit for centuries. Specific launch information is provided to you after the launch occurs and the spacecraft completes at least one successful orbit.

You can track our Earth 0rbiting missions online by visiting our website via the links above. You can also track our satellites using the Star Walk app, which is, “an award-winning education app that allows users to easily locate and identify 20,000+ objects in the night sky. The 360-degree, touch control star map displays constellations, stars, planets, satellites, and galaxies currently overhead from anywhere on Earth.” Star Walk’s display shows the position of each Celestis spacecraft against the constellations of the sky (e.g., Taurus, Aries, Cancer).

Satellite tracking software uses satellite flight data collected by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which updates its satellite tracking data periodically. NORAD tracks all man-made objects in space.

In addition to tracking our Earth orbit missions, you should also be able to track our inaugural Voyager Service mission, the Sunjammer solar sail, which will travel into deep space. Visit our online Launch Manifest for information about all of our exciting upcoming missions!

Sunjammer and your loved one, defending Earth

Celestis’ Sunjammer solar sail is a NASA-funded starship that will travel many millions of miles toward the Sun, demonstrating – for the first time – a solar sail’s ability to fly and to navigate, as well as to provide early warning against the dangers of solar storms heading Earth’s way. This will also be a memorial spaceflight mission, carrying the cremated remains of people on this history-making journey.

But what are these solar storms, and what dangers do they pose?

Earth and a CME — Closeup of a CME that occurred on July 1, 2002. The Earth (which is not located this close to the Sun!) is shown for comparison. Image Credit: SOHO, ESA & NASA

The solar storms are technically called “coronal mass ejections” (CMEs):

The outer layer of the Sun is referred to as the Sun’s “corona.”
From time to time, the corona will erupt, spewing (ejecting) huge amounts of charged particles (part of the mass of the Sun) into space.
The danger is, if one of these CME’s impacts Earth, the charged particles — interacting with Earth’s magnetic field — can play havoc with electricity grids, radio communications, computer systems, etc., which could result in widespread chaos lasting for years at a time.

In the modern era we have experienced relatively minor CMEs. But major CMEs have impacted the Earth in the past — well before the development of our modern, high tech society — and undoubtedly will impact us again in the future. For example, on March 13, 1989 a moderate CME caused an electric blackout in the Canadian province of Quebec that lasted approximately nine hours. But on September 1, 1859 a much more powerful CME impacted Earth. While we didn’t have computers, satellites and massive electricity grids at that time, we did have the telegraph: The 1859 CME’s impact on the world’s telegraph systems provides a cautionary tale for us today. During this CME, telegraph machines across North America, Europe, Australia and parts of Asia threw off sparks, shocking telegraph operators, setting small fires and effectively bringing down telegraph systems for two days. The 1859 CME is known as the “Carrington Event,” named after British amateur astronomer Richard Carrington who observed large sunspots and a massive solar flare at the time of the 1859 CME, and drew a connection to the effects observed on Earth.

Carrington Events are estimated to occur approximately once every 150 years: It’s not a question of “if,” but of “when” the next one will head our way. When a Carrington Event eventually impacts our increasingly electronic, interconnected, wired society, the results could be catastrophic. In a 2013 report Lloyd’s of London estimates that a Carrington Event could leave 20-40 million Americans without electricity for up to two years! The most vulnerable areas for the United States, Lloyd’s reports, include: the New York City-Washington, DC corridor; the Midwest and the Gulf Coast. Imagine the chaos that would occur if a major urban area, such as New York City, lost electric power for two years — or even for two weeks! No electricity would mean no lighting, no power to pump water and run sewage systems, no refrigeration, no subways, no elevators, no air conditioning….

However, with enough warning of a CME, managers of electric utilities can take preventative measures to reduce the risk of long-term damage to electric grids. This is where Sunjammer enters the picture.

Four aging satellites currently monitor the Sun for CMEs. (See image below.) These satellites are located along Earth’s orbit, or at a special point (called “L1″) between the Earth and the Sun where the gravity of the Earth and Sun offset each other, allowing the satellites to remain in place without needing to use much fuel to maintain their position in space. Sunjammer will also fly to L1. Should this technology demonstration mission prove successful, future solar sail spacecraft could be positioned at points even closer to the Sun, providing earlier warning of CMEs. Because solar sails do not need to carry propellant – they harness the physical pressure of sunlight to travel through space – solar sails could maintain observing positions much closer to the Sun than conventional, fuel-burning spacecraft currently can.

The Celestis Sunjammer mission will be truly historic, helping to defend Earth from dangerous CMEs. Reservations for this important mission are open. Pre-arrangements can also be made for yourself. Contact Celestis today for more information.

The Celestis Foundation: Private Enterprise in Space for the Public Good on Earth

Since 1995, the Celestis Foundation has donated funds to organizations that promote innovative projects that improve life on Earth and stimulate our ongoing exploration of the universe.

The Foundation focuses on nurturing entrepreneurial space enterprises, supporting organizations that educate our children and the general public about space, and contributing to charities that create a positive future on Earth. A portion from the proceeds of each Celestis sale is donated to an individual, organization, or institution that embodies the spirit and principles of exploration, planetary conservation, and innovation so prevalent among our mission participants.

For the last half dozen years the Celestis Foundation has been a Gold Sponsor of the Annual Frank J. Redd Student Scholarship Competition — a prime example of an educational initiative that is fostering the development of both students and the final frontier. The Scholarship Competition provides college students with the opportunity to share their work on small satellite concepts and missions at the annual Small Satellite Conference. The AIAA/Utah State University Conference on Small Satellites has become internationally recognized as the premier conference on small satellites.

We have also proudly supported the the X PRIZE Foundation, which, quoting from it website, is “an educational 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity, thereby inspiring the formation of new industries and the revitalization of markets that are currently stuck due to existing failures or a commonly held belief that a solution is not possible. The Foundation addresses the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. It motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital.” In fact, Celestis has an agreement with two of the Google Lunar X Prize Teams — Odyssey Moon Limited and Astrobotic Technology, Inc. — to launch payloads containing human cremated remains to the surface of the Moon as early as 2014/2015.

In 2008 and 2009 the Celestis Foundation began its ongoing support of the Houston Urban Debate League by creating the League’s Web site. The mission of the Houston Urban Debate League is to build, support, and sustain programs in Houston’s public schools to make policy debate an educational resource available to all students. Policy debate prepares students to be effective advocates for themselves, their families, and their community. The Houston Urban Debate League develops public-private partnerships that enhance the investment of school districts in debate activities by providing business and community finance, mentoring, communication, and facilities to permanently restore policy debate in all of Houston’s public high schools. Celestis supports HUDL as a means to assist under-served high school students to pursue university education and careers in law and government. HUDL exemplifies the Celestis Foundation’s commitment to the future.

The Celestis Foundation ensures a continuing source of support for the people and projects that will accelerate the opening of the space frontier and the preservation of Earth. We invite you to read more about the Celestis Foundation and the good work it does.

Family Donates Spacecraft Model Collection to Celestis

The family of James J. Allaire, a participant on our New Frontier Flight that was successfully launched into Earth orbit on May 22, has donated Mr. Allaire’s impressive collection of spacecraft models to Celestis.

Allaire Spacecraft Model Collection — On display at our corporate offices are spacecraft models, mission patches, and other space-related items from the spacecraft model collection of James Allaire.

Mr. Allaire, who lived in Derby, Connecticut, was a dedicated spacecraft modeler. Before the advent of the Internet, he conducted a great deal of research reading books about spacecraft. The Internet enabled him to learn much more about rockets. The online photos he found helped him craft next-to-exact replicas of spacecraft. He really liked to craft a perfect replica of a rocket using various household items, such as foil packaging from candy wrappers to get the coloring on the heat shields just right. He kept all this paraphernalia in his modeling room with all his models, which were in mounted in specially-built display cases. This hobby was a stress reliever for him: He truly enjoyed the detail work of crafting a model, or scratch-building pieces of a model that he felt were more accurate for the particular rocket model he was building.

Mr. Allaire entered numerous space model competitions locally, regionally and nationally (including International Plastic Modelers Society competition) and won various awards. The out of town competitions gave him the opportunity not only to see other modelers and check out their techniques, but also to explore the area where a contest was being held. With his wry sense of humor, he enjoyed viewing some of the tongue-in-cheek dioramas that some modelers crafted. He took his nephews, who also did modeling for a time, on these weekend trips to space model contests. And it wasn’t just his nephews who modeled: his niece also built a model and competed.

A number of years ago, Mr. Allaire started a spacecraft modeling class at his local library to teach kids how to model. Although he never held a title from the modeling clubs with which he was associated, he benefitted from his affiliation with the local modeling club, Connecticut Yankee Modelers. The club held afternoon sessions at a local hobby show to show kids the art of modeling. He also enjoyed meeting and discussing modeling with other people from the Southwestern Connecticut area.

Celestis appreciates this fine gift from the Allaire family!