page_title: Space burial
section_title: History and typology
hierarchical_section_title: Space burial / History and typology
caption_attribution_description: English: The Space Shuttle Enterprise rolls out of the Palmdale manufacturing facilities with Star Trek television cast and crew members. From left to right, the following are pictured: DeForest Kelley, who portrayed Dr. "Bones" McCoy on the series; George Takei (Mr. Sulu); James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott); Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura); Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock); series creator Gene Roddenberry; NASA Deputy Administrator George Low; and, Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov).
context_page_description: Space burial is the launching of samples of cremated remains into space. Missions may go into orbit around the Earth or to extraterrestrial bodies such as the Moon, or farther into space.
  Samples of cremated remains are not scattered in space so as not to contribute to space debris. Ashes remain sealed in their small capsules until the spacecraft burns up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere or reach their extraterrestrial destinations. Suborbital flights briefly fly ashes into space then return to Earth where they can be recovered. Small samples of remains are launched to minimize the cost of launching mass into space, thereby making such services more affordable.
context_section_description: The concept of launching remains into space using conventional rockets was proposed by the science fiction author Neil R. Jones in the novella "The Jameson Satellite", which was published in the pulp magazine Amazing Stories in 1931. It was later proposed as a commercial service in the 1965 movie, "The Loved One", and by Richard DeGroot in a Seattle Times newspaper article on April 3, 1977. Since 1997, the private company Celestis has conducted numerous space burials flying as secondary payloads.
caption: Gene Roddenberry (third from the right) in 1976 with most of the cast of Star Trek at the rollout of the Space Shuttle Enterprise at the Rockwell International plant at Palmdale, California, USA
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