OTD in Space – April 21: 1st Space Funeral Launches on 'Founders Flight'

On April 21, 1997, the cremated remains of 24 people were launched into space in the first-ever space funeral. [‘On This Day in Space’ Video Series on Space.com]

One of those people was Gene Roddenberry, the creator of "Star Trek." Other notable people on board included the physicist and space exploration activist Gerard O'Neill, the German rocket scientist Krafft Ehricke, and Timothy Leary, a psychologist who became famous for his research on psychedelic drugs. These people's remains were sent to space via a company called Celestis, which charges thousands of dollars for these "memorial spaceflights." It only launches small samples of the cremated remains, because launching all of it would be way more expensive. The maiden voyage was named the Founders Flight, and it was air-launched on a Pegasus rocket. The capsule containing the remains orbited Earth for about 5 years before burning up in the atmosphere.