The final journey of stardust

By Laura Bohnert

Have you always dreamed of going to space? Now you can—and you don’t have to be rich and famous to do it. There is one catch: you do have to be dead first.

A British company called Ascension is working to make it possible for you to fulfill your, your loved one’s, or even your beloved pet’s dream of travelling to space—after death. The company, which was begun in 2012 with a team of funeral directors and leading high-altitude imagery specialists, will send the cremains (cremated remains) into space to be scattered in the stratosphere. Your cremains would essentially become stardust.

Humanity has dreamed of space travel for centuries. As the possibility of actual space flight took off in the 1950s—alongside the space race between the US and the Soviets—so, too, did the popularity of the concept of space exploration, from the boom of science fiction in popular culture to the new design of cars (did you ever wonder about those big fins on the 50s and 60s era cars? They were designed to emulate the look of spaceships, thus marketing on the fast-spreading popularity of the desire to get to space first—and making participation in the race accessible to a much wider demographic).

The allure for the untested frontier of the outer reaches has persisted to this day—especially with modern advances in technology that have enabled new discoveries and increased curiosities surrounding planets like Mars. That allure is what makes the idea of turning your and your loved ones’ cremains into stardust so thrilling. Not only does it speak to current popular curiosities (and trends), but it also speaks to the nostalgic sentiments of those who grew up during the race to space. What better way to honour the memory of someone than to help them fulfill a dream that may have been kindled during their childhood?

Dr. Chris Rose, co-founder of Ascension, has stated in interviews that “Many of the first generation of space fans intoxicated by space flight will never experience the thrill of looking back at the Earth and fulfilling their dream of space flight. Our new service enables families the opportunity to fulfil their loved ones’ dreams. We feel it’s the ultimate send-off for a life well lived. Fundamentally, we are all stardust, so this feels like a fitting tribute to those of us who have lived through the prologue to the space age.”

The process takes two-and-a-half hours. The Ascension 1, a balloon craft, launches from Sheffield base, South Yorkshire, England. It climbs just over 35 kilometers, then releases the cremains into the stratosphere. The high-altitude winds scatter the cremains, and they fall back to earth as raindrops and snowflakes as precipitation forms around them.

According to Ascension’s website, “Small amounts of nutritious chemicals will stimulate plant growth wherever it [the former cremains, now stardust] lands. In this way, your loved one’s earthly remains will become a part of the cycles which create and sustain life on our planet.”

A video memorial will also capture the flight and release. And the cost? At an approximate C$1,300, the process is within the ballpark of a standard funeral service—just with a much, much wider scope.

Ascension 1’s first flight is scheduled for November, so keep an eye on the skies. You may be watching the last journey of the departed, like the end of “The Dead,” when “His soul swooned softly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”