Celestis to Send Human Ashes Beyond the Moon on Deep-Space Memorial Flight in 2026

Founded in 1994, Texas-based Celestis is a pioneer in space-burial services that has offered memorial flights for nearly thirty years. It will launch its next deep-space memorial flight via Stoke Space's Nova rocket. The mission, called Infinite Flight, will carry cremated remains and DNA samples beyond the Moon into a permanent solar orbit. Scheduled for late 2026 from Cape Canaveral, it will be the company's second deep-space voyage, following 2024's Enterprise Flight.

‘Infinite Flight' mission to solar orbit

According to the news reports, Infinite Flight is planned to leave the Earth–Moon system and enter a heliocentric orbit around the Sun. Celestis describes the one-way journey as part of its “Voyager” programme, intended as a permanent space memorial. The company says the flight could carry its payload as far as 185 million miles from Earth. It will launch aboard Stoke Space's Nova rocket, a fully reusable two-stage vehicle scheduled for its first orbital test in 2026.

Celestis: pioneers of space memorials

For almost thirty years, Celestis has been providing memorial spaceflights to near space, orbit around Earth, and even to the Moon. Their first mission back in 1997 had the ashes of Gene Roddenberry, the guy behind Star Trek. Then in 2024, they launched their first deep-space mission called the Enterprise Flight, which sent several capsules into a permanent solar orbit. Among those capsules were tributes for some sci-fi icons and three former U.S. presidents.