A new Texas-based company Celestis, Inc offers to send a portion of your pets’ remains or DNA into space, for as little as $995 and up. The pet remains will travel on a vehicle also carrying scientific or commercial baggage. The service is fairly customizable, as the company describes in their press release: “Service options include suborbital flights that return to Earth, Earth orbit missions, lunar flights, and missions to deep space.” Deep space funerals are $12,500.
An Australian Shepard named “Apollo” is the first pet whose remains will make the journey.
“Apollo was a remarkably intelligent dog who constantly demonstrated leadership and was almost the equivalent of an Olympic athlete,” said owner and dog lover Michael Potter. “We wanted to do something to remember and honor Apollo, and Celestis Pets is an incredible way to memorialize him.”
The company is excited about the groundbreaking nature of their service, writing that “pet spaceflights are an historic first and mark a further evolution of commercial spaceflight to include non-human species.”
This may be one of the first space flights to include “pets,” but many living animals have already been there, even before humans (though few have come back). Most recently, Russia was in the news for briefly losing control of a ship full of copulating geckos. Just think: Your pet’s Earthly remains could soon join them. (Image: Celestis, Inc)
