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Mass. man’s ashes to be launched into space
The Cape Cod resident's family is sending his ashes into the cosmos to fulfill the space fan's final wish.
The daughter of a Cape Cod man who passed away in 2021 will honor her father by launching his ashes into space.
The cremains of David Allen Lavender will blast into space on a Celestis Memorial Spaceflight mission known as Serenity, according to a Celestis spokesperson. Lavender, a Mashpee resident, was 65 years old when he passed away on Jan. 28, 2021. The cosmic journey is meant to fulfill Lavender’s last wish.
“Ever since he was young, David wished to be an astronaut,” Celestis said in a press release. “He had a deep love and infatuation with all things space-related. When he was little, he memorized all seven of the original astronauts and made sure to always stay up to date on and watch all of NASA’s missions.”
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The memorial flight is scheduled for mid-2025 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Serenity Flight will launch into Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. The launch service will be provided by ABOVE Space, through SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare program.
“We are honored and pleased to have David on board Serenity”, said Charles M. Chafer Co-Founder and CEO of Celestis, Inc. “Our memorial spaceflights are tributes to a life well-lived and to those who are reaching the stars.”
Lavender worked as a local news editor and videographer, but also had an avid interest in outer space and sci-fi, according to Celestis. He built and launched his own rockets and constructed a large version of the International Space Station, which he donated to a local school for educational purposes. Lavender was also a fan of “Star Trek” and other science fiction.
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“David made it very clear that whenever he passed, it was his wish to have his ashes launched into space,” Celestis said in a press release.
The Serenity flight will be housed in ABOVE Space’s Prometheus Spark satellite and will carry a symbolic portion of each flight participant’s cremated remains or DNA. It will be deployed into low Earth orbit and circle the planet for nearly a decade before reentering the Earth’s atmosphere, where it will blaze and disintegrate like a shooting star.
The flight will be Celestis’ twelfth Earth orbit mission and its 24th overall mission since its 1994 founding. Reservations for the memorial launch will be open until March 1.
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