SpaceX's Falcon One To Carry Remains To The Stars

When you go to the Spirit in the Sky, would you really like to take off -- out of Earth's atmosphere? For about 125 people whose last wish was to do just that, their time is soon to come.

The main payload aboard the SpaceX Falcon One rocket to be launched in February will be a Navy satellite. But it will also carry the cremated remains of about 125 people.

Internet entrepreneur and SpaceX founder Elon Musk says if you gotta go, this is a great way to do it. "If you had to check off where you wanted your ashes to go... space would be the coolest option," he told CNET News.

Houston-based Space Services actually offers the Final Frontier as a final resting place. For between $995 and $5,300, depending on weight, Space Services will also send your remains on that Final Voyage. In fact, Space Services has already done so at least four times. Among its customers: "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, and LSD guru Timothy Leary. The remains, packed into a small capsule embedded in the nosecone of the Space Services vehicle, are injected into orbit, where they remain for about 10 years before plunging back to earth in a final cremation.

On the next trip, scheduled for February, the remains of astrogeologist Mareta West and Hollywood writer/director John Meridyth Lucas will fly into orbit. West is best known for maps of the moon used in the Apollo landings. Lucas was a Roddenberry prot�g� who wrote and directed several episodes of the original "Start Trek."

"He loved to travel when he was alive, so we figured why should death slow him down?" Lucas's son Michael told CNET in a phone interview.

FMI: www.spacex.com, www.spaceservicesinc.com