Launch Date Set For First NZ First Memorial Space Flight

A launch date has been set for the memorial flight into space for the ashes of five deceased New Zealanders.

StardustMe, the New Zealand company behind the memorial space flights, sold five places on the SpaceX rocket that is scheduled to launch a satellite from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Los Angeles on the night of January 29 (US time), although this may change due to weather.

Stu Potter of Gisborne and Geoff Lamb of Auckland, the co-founders of StadustMe, say it will be a very exciting moment both for the business and the families of those whose ashes are going to be aboard. The satellite is expected to orbit Earth for up to a decade and will be launched alongside a group of the Starlink network of satellites.

A live stream of the launch will be able to be watched by the families and the satellite will be permanently tracked online for the duration of its existence.

Among those watching will be the family of a 14-year-old Wellingtonian Remy Townsley, who died suddenly in 2020. His mother Keryn says Remy became passionate about rockets and space flight after a family trip to the United States to visit his uncle, where they saw the SpaceX Falcon 9 launched. Because of Covid restrictions at the time of his death not all family could attend Remy’s funeral and Keryn says the memorial flight will allow family in New Zealand and around the world to have a unique and ongoing connection to her son.

About 1 gram of ashes from each deceased person is placed in inscribed metal tokens. Other overseas businesses offer similar space flight memorial services for human ashes on various satellites, but StardustMe is the first New Zealand company to do so.

The idea for the company was originally hatched more than four years ago when Stu and Geoff were stargazing while camping with their families north of Gisborne, at Anaura Bay. “It was one of those whacky ideas that once verbalised just wouldn’t go away and I knew we had to make it happen,” Stu says.

For Stu, of Ngāti Awa decent, the first launch will be particularly poignant. It will host the ashes of his cousin, Tristan Stewart, who died last year in Australia during the Covid lockdowns, limiting the ability of whānau to mourn together. “The first flight will honour and celebrate my cousin’s life and remember the amazing person he was,” Stu says. “It is also fortuitous that the launch of StardustMe coincides with our nation’s changing attitudes towards how we honour our loved ones who pass, inspired through Matariki.

“At the end of the day we are made up of stardust, as nearly all the elements in the human body were made in a star, which will go on to seed the next generation of stars, hence the name StardustMe.”

Aerospace engineering and complicated international compliance protocols had to be navigated and the final challenge for the team was to gain the approval of most ministerial offices and ultimately signoff from the Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash, who granted its Payload Permit on August 8 last year.

Since the company went public in November, there has been growing interest from around the nation. StardustMe is affiliated to the Funeral Directors Association and has been working closely with some its members. The tokens for the first flight quickly sold out and StardustMe is now selling tokens for the next launch in May, from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

For further information https://www.stardustme.com

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