WASHINGTON, D.C. — Memorial spaceflights have become one of the more unique ways to honor and celebrate the lives of those who’ve passed away. 

“Now you can become a diamond, you can become an ocean reef, you can become a tree. There are all sorts of choices that sprung up because people wanted those choices. And we’re riding that wave as well,” said Charles Chafer, the chairman and CEO of Celestis, a company that provides memorial spaceflight services sending human DNA and cremated remains into space.  

It’s done about twenty memorial spaceflights since 1997.

“We partnered with just about everybody — that includes NASA — but it’s really mostly finding a commercial company that has extra space. Rockets almost always over-perform what they need to, which means they have extra capacity, which we help either the launch company or a satellite company that has extra capacity, to help them monetize some wasted space,” Chafer said. 

Chafer says the growth of the space industry, the increasing popularity of cremation, and a growing number of Baby Boomers looking for untraditional funerals have contributed to the surge of interest in memorial spaceflights. The cremated remains or DNA are put into capsules before they’re sent into space.

“The largest flight we’ve ever had was, I believe, 350 folks on board. The smallest one was our first one, and we had 24 folks on-board,” he said. 

But a recent effort to send capsules to the moon sparked an outcry from the Navajo Nation, which says it does not oppose space exploration but believes the moon is sacred. 

“The moon has always been there to guide us, especially in our hardest times. We looked up to the moon. We prayed in periods of our most significant hardships,” said Navajo Nation Washington Office Executive Director Justin Ahasteen. 

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren met with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in February to discuss the Navajos’ concerns. Nygren previously spoke with White House officials and was hoping to block Celestis’ flight to the moon in January. The capsules reached space but not the moon’s surface because of a malfunction.  

Celestis worked with NASA to send the remains of planetary geologist Eugene Shoemaker to the moon in the 1990s, and it plans to send more remains to the moon next year on a so-called ‘Destiny Flight.’ 

“I respect the right for them to have the opinion that they have, definitely. We don’t quite get it, in the sense that nobody owns the moon, certainly for ceremonial or religious purposes,” Chafer said. 

“We certainly don’t own the moon. Nobody owns the moon. But, what gives one person the right especially, you know, accompany a right to dictate what are allowable activities on and off of the celestial bodies?” Ahasteen said.