Space Burial – will courier companies one day be asked to perform this rather unusual service?

With advances in technology continuously being made around burial services alternatives and certain people even opting for solutions to running out of space to bury their loved ones such as cryonics, space burials may be another suitable alternative.

The idea is to send cremated on a rocket already headed for the stars, a journey that is more symbolic than practical: Because of the high cost of spaceflight, only 1 to 7 grams (0.04 to 0.25 ounces) of remains are launched.

In the USA, according to Celetis Memorial Spaceflights, a company that offers the postmortem flights, a low-orbit journey that enables ashes to experience zero gravity before returning to Earth starts at $995. A chance to orbit Earth and eventually burn up in the atmosphere runs  at around $3,000. Dedicated space-lovers can have themselves launched to the moon or into deep space for $10,000 and $12,500, respectively.