South Florida woman honors mom's memory by sending her ashes to space
MIAMI - A South Florida woman's dying wish was for her ashes to be set free, so her daughter came up with something out of this world. She's sending her ashes to space.
Jennifer Trautman Levin said her mom, Eileen, was diagnosed with a rare disease in 2016: Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.
"It took away her speech, from her walking, slowly inch by inch," Jennifer said, "but she was fully aware the whole time."
In 2021, the disease took Eileen.
"It's very hard knowing that she's suffered so much," Jennifers said, "but she's my everything."
Her mom had one dying wish.
"My mom did not want to be in an urn," Jennifer said. "She said she would torture me. She wanted to be free."
So Jennifer started researching.
"I looked at like hot air balloon," she said.
That's when she came across Celestis.
"We fly the cremated remains, ashes, of a loved one to space and we offer four destinations," Colby Youngblood said.
Three of the space missions come back to Earth in some form.
"They burn up completely and entirely as they come into the earth's atmosphere," Youngblood said. "So at the end of our earth orbital service, their loved one becomes a shooting star and a fitting final tribute."
Jennifer however, wanted her mom to be free forever, so she chose the fourth and final destination.
"They're going to go out into what's called a heliocentric orbit around the sun," Youngblood said. "That just means it's going to orbit around the sun, literally forever."
For Eileen, this was perfect.
"Her last Halloween, she actually dressed as Star Trek, she's always been a fan," Jennifer said. "My mom was a tax attorney, and in her office, she had all the little characters."
On board, the very same flight is the DNA from the founder of Star Trek.
"We have some very notable original Star Trek cast members along with the creator of Star Trek flying," Youngblood said. "We have other just really cool passengers as well."
Jennifer only wishes she could tell her mom she found the perfect way to honor her.
"This is like to make it a reality is is a dream, a blessing and a gift," she said.
The mission takes off from Cape Canaveral on January 8th. Jennifer and her son will be there watching.
You may be wondering how much something like this costs. Flight options start from $3,000 to $13,000.
But Youngblood with Celestis said the average funeral cost in the US is around $15,000.
