Now you can send your pet's remains on a journey literally out of this world


If your dog loved to sniff around outdoors and go on grand adventures, it might be a fitting send-off to blast his remains into space.
Houston-based Celestis Inc. has been sending human remains up on memorial space flights since 1997, and will soon launch its first flight for pets, Reuters reports. On October 7, a blue merle Australian shepherd named Apollo will go on the Earth Rise journey; a portion of his remains will be placed in a capsule that is integrated into a Celestis spacecraft, attached to a rocket, and then launched. The capsule will come back down to earth, and will be recovered and given to his family.
There are other options in addition to Earth Rise, including Earth Orbit which goes around the world, Luna, which blasts off to the moon, and Voyager, which heads all the way out to deep space. The prices start at $995 for Earth Rise and go up to $12,500 for Luna or Voyager.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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