... As access to space has increased, thanks largely to the commercial space industry, so too have the types of payloads we are sending. Consider the Nyx capsule created by German aerospace startup The Exploration Company, which launched on June 23rd from the Vandenberg Space Force Base atop a Falcon-9 rocket as part of a rideshare mission (Transporter-14). The payload for this flight (dubbed "Mission Possible") included the ashes and DNA of more than 166 deceased people provided by Celestis, a Texas-based memorial spaceflight company.

While the mission achieved orbit and a controlled reentry, the capsule's landing parachutes failed to deploy before landing. This caused the Nyx capsule to crash in the Pacific Ocean on June 24th, causing all of its cargo to be lost at sea. ...

...

This is also the second time Celestis has lost a payload, the previous having taken place in 2023 when a rocket containing the cremated remains of the late NASA astronaut Philip K. Chapman exploded over New Mexico. ...

I presume the goal was to put the remains in low earth orbit, where they would eventually have reentered anyway—right?

That's one hell of a hotbox session.

For a brief fraction of a second I read cannibals.

That’s the dream.

My Temu order coming in as expected

and it's floating in a most peculiar way

When did they become human remains? Before or after launch?

Okay, partial failure. But they ended up with an epic Viking burial at sea!

I don't think that's what they meant when they said they were gonna blaze it.

Sometimes that comedown be hard AF, tho.

So uh, how much cannabis? Asking for a fisherman.

Well that’s a brand new sentence.

I mean, haha silly funny time, but it was a person, Phillip Chapman, an astronaut's remains. Please show some respect.

Wow the comments here are gold