Anne Arundel County woman will launch her late husband into deep space
CROWNSVILLE -- An Anne Arundel County woman is flying into deep space with her late husband and the help of a Texas-based company specializing in helping families send loved ones into space.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. William "Bill" Shaw always wanted to go into space, but he never got the chance before he died.
His widow, Oren Whyche-Shaw, said he kept up on everything about space. That included shows like Star Trek, which is something they had in common.
So much so, that they built their home's basement into a mock-up of the USS Enterprise. The walls are filled with pictures from their time at Star Trek conventions over the years.
It's at those conventions Wyche-Shaw first heard about the company Celestis, which facilitates memorial spaceflights for families to send the ashes of dead loved ones into space.
After Shaw died in 2017, Whyche-Shaw got some of his ashes on a spaceflight two years later that's still orbiting the Earth.
But soon, his ashes will be sent to space again with some of Whyche-Shaw's DNA on Celestis' first deep space voyage.
The ashes of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, and Roddenberry's wife will also be on it.
"Three presidents' DNA will be on it, an astronaut or two will be on it, and then regular people like me and Bill," Whyche-Shaw said.
Celestis has four memorial spaceflight options that range from around $3,000 to $13,000 in cost.
Celestis' president, Colby Youngblood, said these services have helped families get even more closure.
"When the families see their loved one launching on a rocket, they don't just see it—they feel it," Youngblood said. "They can feel those engines inside of them as they see their loved one taking off into space."
For Whyche-Shaw, this voyage will be a way to be with her husband forever.
"The first launch, the Heritage mission, that was really for Bill, fulfilling his desire to go into space," she said. "This [time] will be for us, he won't be able to get rid of me."
This voyage, aptly called the Enterprise mission, will take off next week on Jan. 8. It will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
