There is something poignant about visiting a cemetery to talk to a loved one buried in the Earth. However, Toni McCoy finds peace looking up to the stars to talk to her brother Gilbert Pico, whose remains will orbit the sun for eternity aboard a satellite in space.
“I can walk outside, and I can look up at night and I can say, ‘Hey, Gil, you know, what do you see tonight?’” smiled McCoy as her eyes puddled. “It's been really hard. You know, everybody loved Gil.”
Gil Pico died in 2022 from prostate cancer. While planning his services, the Crown Point man’s family learned about Celestis. The Houston-based company takes a symbolic portion of someone’s cremated remains and sends them to space aboard a rocket.
“We looked at each other. We went, ‘Oh yeah, that's what we're doing with Gil.’ So, Gil, I hope you like it,” cackled his sister in her Crown Point home.
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“It's people who love space, who love science fiction, adventurers,” said Celestis President Colby Youngblood from his Houston office.
Youngblood said Celestis has sent remains of roughly 3,000 people into space on board 22 missions aboard NASA rockets and private satellites since 1997. Celestis takes about a gram of a person’s remains and places it in a custom container that’s included as a secondary payload on a spacecraft.
“It's my favorite thing to do. It's not even work. It's not even a job,” said Youngblood. “It's a sense of accomplishment, a sense of pride.”
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The “burial in space” costs between $3,500 and $13,000, which is not bad considering a traditional funeral on Earth costs about $10,000.
Family and friends are invited to watch the launches. Gil Pico's mission to space was in January this year.
“That launch was absolutely incredible,” said his sister Toni. “You feel the roar and you hear the roar, and you see the fire coming up from behind the bridge and lights up the entire sky.”
“It is a very powerful moment,” agreed Youngblood.
“And I just think that is so cool because you started as a little kid with a telescope and now, he's racing the James Webb telescope,” smiled Toni. “I just think that is the coolest thing ever.”
Youngblood said there are five satellites currently rotating around the Earth carrying Celestis clients. Gil Pico’s “mission” will take him two years to a distant orbit around the sun. It will be humankind’s farthest orbital outpost ever.
