Celestis 01

Launch data:

Description:

• First private memorial spaceflight
• Celestis is the first company to offer space burials. The Celestis payloads are small containers (CPAC, Celestis Payload Attached Container), which are bolted to the last stage (Orion-38) of Pegasus-XL launch vehicles.
• The containers contain small aluminum capsule about the size of a lipstick, containing symbolic 7 g of cremated remains.

Mission details:

• The world's first private memorial spaceflight occurred on April 21, 1997. The air-launched Pegasus rocket carrying the flight capsules of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, 60ies icon Timothy Leary, space colony advocate Gerard O'Neill, Krafft Ehricke and 20 others deployed over the Canary Islands as it propelled the Celestis spacecraft into orbit. The individual flight capsules remained within the Celestis spacecraft throughout its orbit and re-entered the atmosphere May 20, 2002 northeast of Australia.
• At 6:00 a.m. Central Standard Time, 1:00 p.m. Madrid time, the Orbital Sciences Corporation Stargazer aircraft took off from the Canary Islands, Spain, carrying the Pegasus launch vehicle with the Celestis payload. After carrying the Pegasus XL booster to an altitude of approximately 38,000 feet, the Stargazer released the winged rocket for a five-second free fall before the main engine ignited, powering the three-stage solid fuel vehicle into low Earth orbit.
• First stage ignition occurred at 7:00 a.m. Central Standard Time, 2:00 p.m. Madrid time.
• View the Official Celestis video of The Founders Flight provided to families of those on board.