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Ashes in Orbit: Celestis Spaceflights and the Invention of Post-cremationist Afterlives

Americans increasingly cremate rather than bury their dead, and post-cremation memorial services, such as ash-scattering ceremonies over sea and land, have emerged as a new arena of commercial enterprise and consumer spirituality. Celestis spaceflights, begun in 1997, elevate personal ash-scattering rituals into public performances of the technological sublime by sending tiny samples of cremated remains into earth orbit. The company's promotional materials construct the ashes' journey, inspired by science fiction and the space programmes, as a spiritual quest to the stars. Sending ashes into orbit, like cryonic suspension and human cloning, illustrates a cultural imaginary linking technology with the transcendence of mortality. While Celestis spaceflights have remained marginal to mainstream culture, their version of an afterlife journey invents a new kind of gothic undead: the posthumous cremain-astronaut, enjoying a heavenly, once-in-a-lifetime trip.