ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 10, 1997 TAG: 9702100099
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHANTILLY
SOURCE: PAUL BRADLEY RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
THOSE WHO'VE ALWAYS had their eyes on the stars now can arrange to have their cremated remains blasted into space.
Ever dreamed of being an astronaut? Of slipping the surly bonds of Earth into the great beyond of outer space?
Now, for a mere $4,800, you can.
There's just one catch: You have to be dead.
When an Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL rocket blasts a research satellite into orbit next month, the rocket also will carry the cremated remains of 24 people, including ``Star Trek'' creator Gene Roddenberry and Timothy Leary, the former Harvard professor and LSD guru.
Celestis Inc., a fledgling Houston-based company, has worked out an agreement with Northern Virginia-based Orbital to carry canisters of cremated remains into space aboard Orbital rockets.
The idea, said Celestis Vice President Charles Schafer, is to provide a heavenly memorial for the deceased who always dreamed of soaring into space but never got the chance. What these dearly departed could not accomplish in life they can realize in death.
``It fulfills a dream people have had all their lives,'' Schafer said. ``People are telling us it's the perfect memorial for my father or my husband.''
The first flight carrying the human ashes is set for mid-March, said Barry Beneski, spokesman for Orbital. A 57-foot Pegasus rocket will be carried aloft by an L-1011 jet, which will take off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The primary mission of the flight is to launch a research satellite for Spain, Beneski said. But because the rocket had some extra payload capacity, Orbital agreed, for a fee, to carry the ashes along. ``We really don't have much to do with this,'' Beneski said. ``We are just launching the rocket. That is our business.''
A canister containing the ashes will be attached to the third stage of the Pegasus rocket, which will enter a low Earth orbit after launch. The third stage, and the canister, will eventually burn up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
The families of the people whose remains will be aboard the rocket will attend a memorial service in California when the L-1011 departs, Schafer said. Future launches are planned for the space flight center at Wallops Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
Only a small portion of the ashes of each person will be aboard the rocket, Schafer said. Seven grams of ashes will be placed inside a plastic container about the size of a lipstick tube. The tubes, each covered by an aluminum sleeve, will be placed inside a space-safe canister for the flight.
The notion of memorializing loved ones by shooting their ashes into space has captured the imaginations of a broad spectrum of people. In addition to those of Roddenberry and Leary, the ashes of a 4-year-old Japanese boy will be aboard the initial flight.
LaVerne Gladish of Muncie, Ind., said she did not hesitate to contact Celestis as a way to commemorate her father, Bill Farmer, who died in October 1995.
``My father was quite an enthusiast about space and the space program,'' she said. ``He used to say that space is where all the answers are.''
She recalled how she called her father on the night Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. She wanted to share the moment, even though he was in California and she was in Indiana.
``Celestis came along at the right time and lifted our hearts at the right time,'' Gladish said. ``We knew it would help him take his stairway to the stars. He didn't belong in the ground. Even after death, his beautiful dream can come true.''
Barbara Plake of Lincoln, Neb., was among the first to sign up with Celestis. Her father, John ``Doc'' Sterrett, who died in 1983, formerly worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but he was a ground-based scientist who never flew in space. He always wanted to go, she said.
``This sounded like a perfect tribute and a way to fulfill his wish to take part in space travel,'' she said. ``I feel really good about it. He was an inspiration to me.''
Each family has a chance to inscribe the container containing their loved one's ashes with a few words. Plake recalled how her father used to encourage her when she or her sister brought home a good report card or otherwise distinguished themselves.
``He was the family cheerleader,'' she said. ``He used to say, `Way to go.' So that's what the inscription says: `Way to go, Doc.' I'm sure wherever he is, he is smiling down on us and saying, `Way to go.'''
LENGTH: Medium: 88 linesby CNB