Montreal woman’s ashes will sent to space as part of a ‘spaceflight memorial’ [Video]

Funeral services and commercial space flights are two very different industries, but an American company called Celestis, Inc. offers international families “memorial spaceflights” for their dearly departed’s cremated remains.

The next voyage will include a Montreal-born teacher named Wendy Holmes.

In Cape Canaveral, a group of people cheer as small rockets blasts off into the atmosphere. Carrying precious cargo into space, this Celestis, Inc. Memorial Spaceflight takes small tubes of ashes far, far away.

Charles M. Chafer, co-founder and CEO of Celestis, Inc., explains: “Our most popular service flies a symbolic portion of cremated remains in an individual flight capsule to earth orbit.” He says that journey is five years.

“You can track that on our website so folks can go out and say, ‘Hey, Dad’s going over tonight!’ and celebrate that. After five years, the laws of physics bring the satellites back towards the earth where they re-enter and …