BREVARD COUNTY , Fla. — When United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur embarks on its maiden flight later this year it will carry some special cargo.
In addition to carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, the rocket will also contain the remains of the Star Trek creator and several of the show’s fans.
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Celestis Inc announced Wednesday they had reached a launch services agreement with the launch service provider for its Enterprise Flight in late 2022.
With the announcement, Celestis Co-Founder Charles M. Chafer said the company is one step closer to honoring a promise he made 25 years ago.
“We’re very pleased to be fulfilling, with this mission, a promise I made to Majel Barrett Roddenberry in 1997, that one day we would fly her and husband, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, together on a deep space memorial spaceflight,” Chafer said.
The Enterprise Flight is a tribute to the creator and several cast members of the original Star Trek television series.
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ULA president Tory Bruno said the company is honored to have been chosen for the special mission.
“What a fitting tribute to the Roddenberry family and the Star Trek fans to be a part of the maiden flight of Vulcan, our next-generation rocket,” Bruno said.
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The Enterprise Flight will carry 150 specially manufactured capsules containing DNA samples, ashes and greeting messages into interplanetary space.
More information on the Celestis Enterprise Flight can be found here.
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