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Go to space on the cheap
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-14 09:15 You don't need US$20 million
to be a space tourist anymore. Just US$1,000 will put you in orbit -- or at
least a gram of your incinerated remains.
After a three-year hiatus, privately held Space Services Inc. is poised to
resume service in September launching containers full of people's ashes into
space, where they will circle the Earth for years.
"We're hopefully 65 to 90 days away from the largest ever space funeral
launch," Charles Chafer, president and chief executive of Houston-based Space
Services said.
Chafer said the upcoming launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California
would carry the partial remains of up to 150 people. The launch will also be the
first-ever flight of the Falcon, a low-cost reusable rocket developed with the
backing of Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Though cremation is increasingly acceptable in the United States, where
cremation rates quadrupled from 1972 to 1996-- Chafer said one-third of his
customers were from Japan, where cremation has always been a more accepted
practice..
The cost for sending a large container with 7 grams of cremated remains is
US$5,300.
The company also offers its client a video of the launch and provides
software that allows families to track the orbital location of their loved ones'
remains in real time.
The last funeral flight, in September 2001, failed to reach orbit, but three
prior launches did.
The company pledges a free relaunch if the first attempt fails. Chafer said
the families of 48 of the 50 people whose remains were on the last flight had
opted for another attempt.
"The key to the business is the routine access to space," Chafer said, adding
the company planned to make three to four launches a year if the Falcon program
proves successful.
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