The Celestis Blog - Page 9 of 10 - The blog for Celestis Memorial Spaceflights

Participants On Board The Goddard Flight

Celestis memorial spaceflights always have flight participants with interesting and moving life stories. The Goddard Flight is no exception.

Leonard Michael Majeske, 90, of South Glastonbury, Connecticut was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated with honors from De Lasalle High School. He received an Engineering Degree from the University of Detroit Professional and a Masters Degree from Catholic University. While in school he was Midwest Editor of Design News magazine. He served in the U.S. Air Force in World War II and was a lifetime member of American Legion Glastonbury. His first career was as an aerospace engineer. This included a position with NASA working for rocket pioneer Werner Von Braun. He earned several patents on tank, automobile and airplane components. After retiring from engineering he became an educator with the State of Connecticut.

Leonard, also known as Mike, was an accomplished musician proficient in piano, guitar and his favorite instrument, the accordion. He was an avid duplicate bridge player and a founder of the Glastonbury Duplicate Bridge club. He was a lifetime member of Mensa, a published limerick writer and inventor of the sport of tunnis. He played chess for almost 80 years, earned grandmaster points and won several local chess tournaments. He was the Official Town Crier in Glastonbury and also appeared in advertisements for ConnectiCare. He was a strong vocal advocate for social change.

Brenda Jean Sartor came into this world blessed with unwavering determination and a desire to live life to the fullest and make every day count. God knew that these character traits would be exactly the tools she would need to survive trapped in a physical body compromised by the effects of Spinal Muscular Atrophy – a form of Muscular Dystrophy. Diagnosed at nine months old, the doctors gave Brenda only two years to live – but they couldn’t see the passion and drive inside her little heart that would enable her to live an extra three decades – accomplishing much in her short 36 years.

Brenda’s engaging personality and desire to help find a cure for her debilitating disease led the Muscular Dystrophy Association to select her as both the Idaho State Poster Child in 1981 and the Northeast Florida Poster Child in 1982 & 1983. Thousands were touched when she read her poem “A Little Girl’s Dreams” on TV during the MDA telethon.

But as much as she was devoted to helping find a cure for Muscular Dystrophy, Brenda’s driving passion was outer space. She followed the space flights, devoured books and movies about space and space travel, became a sci-fi junkie, and even loved to eat freeze dried ‘space ice cream.’ She was granted a wish from the Make A Wish Foundation, and naturally chose a trip to NASA! Her personalized behind-the-scenes tour complete with an encounter with an astronaut in a space suit was one of the highlights of her life.

From the time she understood what astronauts did, Brenda’s goal was to become one and travel into outer space. Until Sally Ride beat her to it, Brenda wanted to be the first female astronaut! Undaunted, her goal then morphed to becoming the first disabled person to go into space. She dreamed of being able to move about freely in space – without the restrictions of gravity and a diseased body.

Space shuttle liftoff — Space Shuttle Atlantis takes flight on the STS-27 mission, Dec. 2, 1988.

At the age of 11, during one of Brenda’s many hospital stays, the Challenger explosion occurred. The television was blanketed with coverage, and Brenda, being bound to her hospital room, was a captive audience to the round-the-clock coverage. She was mesmerized by every detail of the launch and its mishap. The future astronaut was so impacted by the tragedy that she switched gears and fixed her sights on becoming an engineer and working for NASA to help ensure that such a catastrophe would never occur again. Brenda never wavered from this vision. She graduated from Middleburg High School with honors, and proceeded to earn a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida.

Although her physical limitations kept her from becoming a NASA employee, her desire to become an astronaut never wavered. Her dying wish was to send part of her remains into space. Her thought was that if she couldn’t travel into space as a ‘whole’ person, she still would be able to fulfill her dream of orbiting the earth by sending her ashes after her passing.

We invite you to read the biographies of all Goddard Flight participants.

Alan Shepard and Celestis — A Pioneering Legacy

Alan Shepard stamp — The US Postal Service has just issued a stamp commemorating Alan Shepard's May 5, 1961 spaceflight.

50 years ago today Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space. As it happens, one of Shepard’s fellow astronauts played critical roles in both that historic mission and Celestis’ corporate history.

On the morning of May 5, 1961 – just weeks after Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human to fly in space – Shepard sat in his Freedom 7 Mercury capsule that was perched atop a Mercury-Redstone rocket. After several hours of repeated launch delays, Shepard famously told mission controllers, “Fix your little problems and light this candle!” At 9:34 a.m. EST the Mercury-Redstone rocket blasted off its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Suborbital trajectory — Celestis Earth Rise spaceflight trajectory: Click to enlarge

Shepard’s flight lasted 15 minutes. Freedom 7 ascended to an altitude of 116 statute miles (187 kilometers), and flew at a maximum speed of 5,134 miles per hour (8,262 kilometers per hour). After flying in space for just a few minutes, Freedom 7 reentered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean where both the spacecraft and Shepard were recovered by the US Navy. Shepard’s spacecraft flew into space and returned to Earth, without orbiting Earth — just like today’s Celestis Earth Rise Service missions.

Fellow Mercury 7 Astronaut Deke Slayton served as a “CAPCOM” (“capsule communicator”) for Shepard’s 1961 mission. As CAPCOM, Slayton was the person designated by NASA to communicate with Shepard via radio, the idea being that an astronaut on the ground was the best person to handle communications with an astronaut in a space capsule. After leaving NASA in the 1970s Slayton would found Space Services Inc. of America (SSIA), from which Celestis traces its corporate history. SSIA became the first private enterprise to launch a rocket into outer space, and Celestis became the first (and only) company to launch cremated remains into the final frontier.

Mercury 7 astronauts — NASA introduced the Project Mercury Astronauts to the world on April 9, 1959, only six months after the agency was established. Known as the Mercury 7 or Original 7, they are: front row, left to right, Walter H. "Wally" Schirra, Jr., Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, John H. Glenn, Jr., and Scott Carpenter; back row, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and L. Gordon Cooper.

Actually, there were two CAPCOM’s for Shepard’s 1961 mission. Until two minutes prior to liftoff, Mercury 7 Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper served as the CAPCOM. Then, Slayton took over CAPCOM duties for the duration of the mission, including liftoff and the flight itself. Cooper, who passed away in 2004, was a participant on board Celestis’ Legacy Flight in 2007, and will be a participant on Celestis’ New Frontier Flight, an Earth-orbiting mission. (See our Launch Manifest for New Frontier launch information.)

Earth Rise launch — See a video about the Celestis Earth Rise Service

Like Shepard’s historic spaceflight, Celestis’ Earth Rise Service missions fly into space and return to Earth without orbiting Earth. The family of each Earth Rise mission participant receives the flown capsule or module containing the cremated remains. Instead of splashing down in an ocean, Celestis Earth Rise missions land at White Sands Missile Range, not far from the launch site at Spaceport America, New Mexico. The Legacy Flight, carrying the cremated remains of Cooper, Star Trek actor James Doohan (“Scotty”) and over 200 others, was an Earth Rise service mission. Celestis launches Earth Rise missions at least once a year.

Shepard on the Moon — See a NASA video about the life of Alan Shepard

There were a number of interesting contrasts between Gagarin’s and Shepard’s 1961 spaceflights. “While Gagarin had only been a passenger in his vehicle,” quoting from an official NASA history of the space program, “Shepard was able to maneuver the Freedom 7 spacecraft himself. While the Soviet mission was veiled in secrecy, Shepard’s flight, return from space, splashdown at sea and recovery by helicopter to a waiting aircraft carrier were seen on live television by millions around the world.” And, of course, while Shepard did not orbit Earth, Gagarin did.

After his Mercury flight, Americans honored Shepard with parades in Washington, New York, and Los Angeles. In a ceremony at the White House that same year, President John F. Kennedy awarded Shepard with the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. Speaking of Yuri Gagarin’s monumental achievement of becoming the first human being to fly in space just 23 days prior to Shepard’s mission, Shepard said, “That little race between Gagarin and me was really, really close.”

Shepard would later command the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon where he hit his famous golf shot on the lunar surface. He retired from NASA in 1974.

Celestis celebrates the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s historic spaceflight!

50 years ago today Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel in space. His spacecraft, Vostok 1, was launched at 6:07 am GMT April 12, 1961 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan, which borders Russia and China. Gagarin’s 108 minute flight took him around the Earth for one orbit. His historic spaceflight made Gagarin an international celebrity.

Yuri Gagarin's space capsule — Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1 capsule at the RSC Energia Museum in Korolev, Russia, located just outside of Moscow.

Like so many of the aerospace professionals who have flown on Celestis memorial spaceflights, Gagarin developed an interest in space travel and astronomy in his youth. He studied at a technical high school where he joined an aerospace club and became a pilot of small aircraft. He later attended the Soviet Air Force Academy where he graduated with honors in 1957. Unfortunately, Gagarin was killed in an airplane crash in 1968. In honor of his achievements, his cremated remains were buried in the Kremlin Wall.

While the Soviet Union and the United States competed in the Cold War space race, the two countries cooperated in the final frontier as well. For example, in 1975 Mercury 7 astronaut Deke Slayton and two other astronauts docked their Apollo capsule in Earth orbit with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft flown by two cosmonauts. This mission was called the “Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.” Slayton would later serve as President of the original Space Services Inc., to which Celestis traces its corporate roots.

Today, astronauts and cosmonauts fly aboard the International Space Station and the space shuttle. In fact, April 12 is also the 20^th anniversary of the first space shuttle flight. On this day in 1981, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off, marking yet another milestone in humanity’s venture into space.

Celebrating Yuri’s Night

Consider celebrating this remarkable day in space history by attending the “Yuri’s Night World Space Party.” Parties are being held in communities around the world today – visit www.yurisnight.net to find an out-of-this-world party near you!

Also, be sure to check out a new, online film — to be released today — about Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight. See www.FirstOrbit.org

We Have Liftoff!

Pioneer Flight liftoff — A spectator photographs the picture-perfect launch of the Pioneer Flight this morning

What a wonderful day! The UP Aerospace SpaceLoft XL rocket carried the Pioneer Flight into space this morning. Liftoff occurred at 6:41 am MDT (8:41 am EDT, 5:41 am PDT, 12:41 GMT), shortly after sunrise – what a spectacular sight! You can view video of the launch here.

The crowd of onlookers – including high school and college students and their instructors, VIPs, and family members of those on board the Pioneer Flight, applauded, cheered, jumped for joy, hugged one another … and cried. Family members in particular were deeply moved, knowing that their loved ones’ dreams of spaceflight have now been fulfilled.

After launch, a number of dignitaries addressed the crowd in a huge tent erected for the occasion. Celestis family members and Celestis CEO Charles Chafer were interviewed. Vendors sold breakfast and drinks to the hundreds of people gathered for this historic event.

Eventually, we boarded our vans for the return trip to the Elephant Butte Inn. A number of us slept on the way back: We had boarded the vans at 3:00 am for the trip to Spaceport America. Upon our arrival at the Elephant Butte Inn, family members again thanked Celestis staff for a successful – and truly meaningful – way of memorializing their loved ones.

We were truly honored to have their loved ones aboard the Pioneer Flight.

Launch Pad Tour and Pre-Launch Briefing

Our guests really enjoyed the launch pad tour this morning.

We boarded our vans at the Elephant Butte Inn around 7:30 am, and arrived at Spaceport America around 9:00. The roads at Spaceport America are much improved from our launch here a year ago. Last year we rode over bumpy, unpaved, gravel roads, creating a minor dust storm in our wake! Since then, Spaceport America has paved the roads, making for a much smoother ride through the New Mexico desert.

We began by touring Mission Control, which is housed in a trailer about a mile from the launch pad. We were greeted by Tracey Larson of UP Aerospace, who gave us an informative presentation on the procedures mission controllers follow when they conduct a launch. Our guests had a number of questions, which UP Aerospace’s Bruce Lee answered.

Then, we boarded the vans again and drove to the launch pad where we were met by UP Aerospace President Jerry Larson. He, and Celestis CEO Charles Chafer, discussed the launch scheduled for tomorrow morning, and took more questions from family members and other VIPs in attendance. Then, we all had an opportunity to walk around the launch pad and take photos.

We returned to the Elephant Butte Inn around 11:00 am and rested. Then, at 4:00 pm, we conducted our Pre-Launch briefing, led by Celestis CEO Charles Chafer. Family members present spoke of their loved ones on the Pioneer Flight.

We held the Pre-Launch Briefing in a banquet room at the Elephant Butte Inn. Perhaps Mr. Chafer’s most important piece of advice was to get to bed early as we have to board the vans tomorrow morning at 3:00 am! The launch is projected to occur at 6:00 am, and we have to leave early so as to be in place in plenty of time for the launch.

Another Interesting Payload

The Pioneer Flight is not only a memorial spaceflight mission. As we wrote on this blog April 30, we are also flying part of a robot built by high school students as part of our ongoing support of education initiatives. In addition, we’re flying a payload of International Space Business Development, Ltd. of Taiwan. This company’s payload, called the “Micro-element Space Experiment,” consists of one gram of “Nano-Calcium,” which will be used as an ingredient for health products in Asia.

International Space Business Development offers a number of services to its clients:

Commercial Space Transportation
Commercial Rocket Launch
Space Micro-Dust R&D
Universal Energy R&D
Space Information Communication
Space Energy Product Distribution and
Marketing

The company also has a strong global-orientation. While valuing the many benefits of humanity’s technological and economic progress over the millennia, International Space Business Development also understands the environmental challenges that technological and economic progress poses to the Earth’s environment and natural resources.

International Space Business Development believes that each human being and company should take on the responsibility of living life – and doing business – in an environmentally-sustainable manner. Because the company cares about the Earth and the people who inhabit it, International Space Business Development supports the development of space and related products and technologies: Such development, the company believes, can help replace the energy and resources used here on Earth. With all of our help, we can preserve the beauty of the Earth for future generations.

Celestis shares much the same philosophy about space development and its role in Earth’s future: We welcome International Space Business Development on board The Pioneer Flight!

We’re in New Mexico

We’ve arrived at the Elephant Butte Inn here in New Mexico. It’s a beautiful hotel, near Elephant Butte Lake State Park.

Elephant Butte Lake State Park features the largest and most popular lake in New Mexico. The lake is really a reservoir that was created almost a century ago when a dam was built across the Rio Grande River. The reservoir is about 40 miles long, and has over 200 miles of shoreline. The Park is a popular tourist attraction known for its water sports and trophy size fish, including striper, bass and wall eye.

“Elephant Butte” is an interesting name. Although fossils of the stegomastodon (a primitive relative of today’s elephant) have been discovered near the reservoir, the area was not named for its former and formidable inhabitants – which included the famous Tyrannosaurs Rex dinosaur. Rather, the name “Elephant Butte” was derived from the eroded core of an ancient volcano, now an island in the reservoir, in the shape of an elephant.

We’ll be greeting our guests this evening at the Celestis registration table where we will issue tickets for the vans that will ferry all of us (including our guests) between the Elephant Butte Inn and Spaceport America.

Tomorrow morning we board the vans at 7:15 and take the Spaceport America tour. Tomorrow afternoon we will hold the pre-launch briefing for our guests.

Note: The photo above, and much of this text, comes from the Web site of the Elephant Butte Lake State Park.

Celestis salutes funeral homes in New Mexico and Arizona

Demand for Memorial Spaceflight services has increased steadily since their introduction in 1994. People all over the US and the world have selected our services for their loved ones and for themselves.

Celestis has a global network of distributors – from China to Germany, from Canada to Australia. For the Pioneer Flight, we particularly welcome three funeral service providers in New Mexico and Arizona.

The Adair Funeral Homes – with offices in Tucson, Oro Valley, and Nogales, Arizona – were founded in 1956 by Arthur J. and Martha J. Adair. The company’s first location in Tucson was considered by most people at the time to be too far out of the city to be able to “make a go” of it. However due to the extremely outgoing and caring personality of Mr. and Mrs. Adair, and their rigid standards of service to every family, the funeral home grew at a rapid rate and currently approximately 1,000 families are served every year from this main location.

Even with the four chapels operating now, the entire operation is entirely maintained and owned by the Adair family and truly remains a “family owned and operated” business, and continues to strive to maintain the original values and principles of Arthur and Martha Adair.

The Getz Funeral Home of Las Cruces, New Mexico is home owned and operated and has been serving families of Las Cruces and southern New Mexico for decades. The Getz family has served the Las Cruces area since 1965 when Terry W. Getz started working for Dennis-Nelson Funeral Home. He later purchased the firm and the name was changed to Getz Funeral Home. He has three sons that have joined the firm: Steven W. Getz, CFSP who is a licensed Funeral Service Practitioner and Bryan P. Getz and Chad R. Getz who are licensed Interns. The company takes pride in conducting each service with a quiet dignity essential to your comfort and well being, regardless of your financial circumstances. The staff at Getz Funeral Home speak both English and Spanish.

Daniels Family Funeral Service is comprised of many funeral homes throughout the state of New Mexico — a total of fourteen funeral homes in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Farmington, Aztec, Kirtland, Gallup and Tse Bonito, and four beautiful cemeteries and three crematories in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Farmington. The company serves these communities, and a wide geographic area of the state.

Kevin R. Daniels, the owner of the company, has been in the funeral and cemetery business for over thirty years in many parts of the United States. With his years of experience, he returned to New Mexico because of his love for the state and its culture. From 1978 to 1982, Kevin served as a police officer with the New Mexico State Police, in Espanola and Farmington. He has served as Commissioner with the Department of Public Safety, and is still involved with the New Mexico State Police.

Daniels Family Funeral Service takes great pride in the community service that it provides, and understands the importance of giving all it can, when it can.

Celestis welcomes these fine funeral service providers to our growing network of distributors, and looks forward to seeing them at Spaceport America.

Payloads on Board

2009 launch video — Click to view video of the 2009 student launch from Spaceport America, New Mexico

Celestis will fly as a secondary payload on board the SpaceLoft® XL. The launch vehicle’s primary payload will be a number of student experiments from New Mexico universities, community colleges, and high schools, as well as part of a robot built by students in Texas.

The New Mexico Space Grant Consortium (NMSGC) at New Mexico State University is the primary payload sponsor. Quoting from the NMSGC Web site, NMSGC, “developed the program that currently works with one high school, 5 community college, and 2 universities in New Mexico to build electronic experiments. The purpose of the program is to develop New Mexico’s workforce by providing students access to space annually from Spaceport America.”

The New Mexico payloads include:

An “Inertial Measurement Unit” from New Mexico State University. The device is designed to record the SpaceLoft® XL’s trajectory. If successful, this device could be used in future SpaceLoft® XL flights.
Miniature electrical connectors from the University of New Mexico. This experiment will test the reliability of electrical connectors to be used in future missions that will be sponsored by the University of New Mexico, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and COSMIAC, which is a congressionally supported space electronics center established at the University of New Mexico.
RocketSat, a set of New Mexico high school payloads including a pressure sensor, accelerometers, temperature sensor, and Geiger counter.

Discobots video — Click for video about Lamar High's award-winning robotics program, "The DiscoBots" (Image Credit: NASA)

In addition, Celestis is flying part of an award-winning robot designed and built by students at Lamar High School in Houston, Texas.

“We are pleased to be working with the primary sponsor of the mission, the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, by providing matching funds that assist students to launch their experiments into space,” said Charles Chafer, CEO of Celestis. “We’re also helping science and technology students in our own community by launching part of an award-winning robot students at Houston’s Lamar High School have built. Including the robot part – called an ‘encoder’ – in the spacecraft is our way of further encouraging these outstanding young people to become the pioneers of the final frontier.”

The Launch Vehicle

Legacy_pad — Celestis families touring the SpaceLoft XL launch pad at Spaceport America

The Pioneer Flight will fly aboard a SpaceLoft® XL launch vehicle, manufactured and flown by UP Aerospace, Inc. of Highlands Ranch, Colorado. This will be Celestis’ third launch aboard a SpaceLoft® XL.

Quoting from UP Aerospace’s Web site, “The SpaceLoft® XL is UP Aerospace’s workhorse rocket — ideal for significant-size payloads and multiple, simultaneous-customer operations. It is a single-stage unguided sub-orbital launch vehicle designed to provide highly reliable, low-cost access to space. The vehicle’s mil-spec, solid rocket motor design is space flightproven, backed by years of intensive ground qualification testing. The system offers numerous advantages including minimal on-pad effort and simplified pre-launch and launch operations.”

The rocket is 20.0 feet (6.1 meters) tall, has a maximum diameter of 10.4 inches (26.4 cm), and a maximum lift-off weight (including payload) of 780 pounds (354 kg) in its standard mission configuration. It can transport up to 110 pounds (50 kg) of payloads to an altitude of 72 miles (116 km), but can fly to higher altitudes with lower-mass payloads.

spaceloft_trajectory_th — SpaceLoft XL trajectory -- Click to enlarge

The SpaceLoft® XL flies along a sub-orbital trajectory, meaning the spacecraft flies into space and returns to Earth, without orbiting Earth – similar to NASA’s early Mercury manned spaceflights in the 1960s. This “Earth Rise Service” mission will launch symbolic portions of cremated remains (contained in flight capsules and modules) into space and return them to Earth via parachute recovery. Total flight time is approximately 15 minutes. Once recovered the Celestis capsules and modules will be returned to family members and loved ones, providing them with a flown keepsake.

discoveryFlight — SpaceLoft XL launch video - Click to view

Liftoff occurs from Spaceport America, New Mexico, a launch facility owned by the State of New Mexico, and located about 45 miles (72 km) north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Prior to liftoff, measurements are taken of upper atmospheric winds. These measurements are fed into a computer that calculates the angle and elevation at which the spacecraft’s launch rail should be oriented so as to ensure a successful flight. After reentering the Earth’s atmosphere the spacecraft returns to Earth by parachute, landing at White Sands Missile Range, which is located near Spaceport America. Technicians at White Sands Missile Range track the spacecraft throughout the flight.