CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (WXYZ) — A Detroit native who grew up in Birmingham is one of more than 100 people who by the end of this week will have a piece of their remains launched into space and into the Earth’s orbit.
"Space burials," as they’re often called, have become a growing segment of the space tourism industry, which has seen a boom in investment over the last few years.
In the 1950s the space race between the U.S. and USSR was underway. It captured the attention of a young Gordon Browne and his younger brother Richard.
“We were both fascinated by the whole thing, but my brother really, really caught on with it,” Richard Browne said.
Richard Browne remembers his brother’s love for space and how he saved his money to buy a telescope. After graduating from Birmingam Groves High School and Wayne State University, he left Michigan and eventually settled down in Florida. He lived just miles from Cape Canaveral.
"You could go inside and watch on the television as they were doing a launch and then you could walk outside into his front yard and could see the rocket going into the sky,” Richard Browne said.
Sadly, Gordon Browne died in 2020. While at the funeral home going through burial options, the family was surprised to learn of a new option.
“Most of it’s the standard thing. 'What kind of coffin would you like if you’re being buried,' or 'Do you want an urn with the cremains in it' and 'Oh yeah, we have this other thing... '” Richard Browne said with a laugh.
The family was then told about Celestis, a company that could fly Gordon Browne’s ashes into space.
"They showed that to us and immediately, all of our eyes lit up and we said, 'Oh, we got to do this,'" Richard Browne said. "This has his name written all over it.”
The Houston-based company has been in business since the ‘90s but has grown significantly thanks to rising cremation rates and access to space. With companies like SpaceX now launching nearly every week, space travel has become more affordable.
“Our business model is a fantastic business model, but there are two key aspects: you have to get to space and people need to want to be cremated,” said Colby Youngblood, president of Celestis, Inc. “Both have climbed significantly."
Celestis buys secondary payload on those rockets, which allows them to charge an affordable price that compares to other burial options. The cost ranges from roughly $3,000 for a launch and return to Earth, $5,000 to be launched into Earth's orbit and $13,000 to send your loved ones ashes to the surface of the moon or to have them launched deep into space.
“To see the closure and the happiness that we can bring, it’s very rewarding,” Youngblood said. "We like to say if it wasn’t for us, there wouldn't be access to space for regular people.”
Greg Autry is a former NASA employee who's now director and clinical professor of the Space Leadership Policy and Business Program at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, a new innovative program that started two years ago.
He says Celestis is one of the leaders in marketing space internment, an industry he believes is a real sustainable business.
“This is an easy add to about every space flight.. it's a good payload to get a cheap deal on,” Autry said of space burials. "As a commercial business, I've seen it discussed for almost 20 years. With the falling price of commercial launch though, it’s becoming a reality for the average person.”
Autry says the cost of flying something into space has dropped by more than 90% in recent years, thanks in part to companies like SpaceX.
"They lowered the cost by orders of magnitude, but they introduced a competitive environment,” Autry said. “All of a sudden, something that was the exclusive domain of inefficient governments is now a hyper-competitive market."
The SpaceX launch that will carry Gordon Browne's remains is scheduled later this week and his ashes will then orbit Earth for about five to 10 years, where according to the Celestis website, "it remains until it re-enters the atmosphere, harmlessly vaporizing like a shooting star in final tribute."
Gordon Browne's family can track the location of his ashes in the sky, which is another reminder that their loved one is watching from above.
"He would be so excited. He would be overjoyed," Richard Browne said of the launch. “It blows your mind how far the technology has gotten — it's just amazing.”
Gordon Browne's remains will also be on another launch next month at Cape Canaveral. That flight will also carry the ashes of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry along with DNA from former Presidents George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
