The space burial company Celestis will include DNA from presidents George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan on their upcoming memorial flight.
NASAA bunch catch a space launch in 2009 .
Four former American presidents are about to go where no president has gone before — space . Well , at least their DNA will .
The distance burial company Celestis is plan to include DNA from president George Washington , Dwight Eisenhower , John F. Kennedy , and Ronald Reagan on its Enterprise Flight , which is plan for this twelvemonth .
NASAA crowd watches a space launch in 2009.
consort toSpace.com , the party acquired authenticated hair samples from Louis Mushro , a celebrity hair collector , which they ’ve go on in “ a climate - control deftness ” in overture of the space flight . But the chairwoman are n’t the only famous passengers on Celestis ’ Enterprise Flight .
The mission , which is lay to fell 150 to 300 million miles into deep space and prove a solar orbit , will also carry DNA and cremated stiff from a issue of figures fromStar Trek . According toCelestis , these include franchise Maker Gene Roddenberry , as well as actors Nichelle Nichols ( Lt . Uhura ) , DeForest Kelley ( Dr. McCoy ) , and James Doohan ( Mr. Scott ) .
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty ImagesGene Roddenberry , top center , with severalStar Trekactors including DeForest Kelley , second from right , who will be come with him into infinite .
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesGene Roddenberry, top center, with severalStar Trekactors including DeForest Kelley, second from right, who will be accompanying him into space.
So — why send the remains of American presidents and skill fiction figures into space ? For Celestial , it all comes down to DNA .
“ In keeping with the idea that ancient DNA can tell scientist how we evolved , ” Celestis explained on their internet site , “ the DNA of these presidents can tell succeeding civilization that may settle in mystifying space more about bygone American leaders and civilisation , even providing a sort of evolutionary ‘ single-valued function ’ as to how the U.S. started ( under Washington ) and boom ( under later United States President including Eisenhower , Kennedy , and Reagan ) . ”
The company sees DNA as “ data storage ” and the DNA of Chief Executive and other digit in blank as a “ cosmic time condensation . ” They hypothesize that future culture could discover the DNA in outer space , and use it as a way to understand the past ( our present tense ) .
Heritage Space/Heritage Images via Getty ImagesPresident John F. Kennedy at Rice University in 1962, where he announced: “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Heritage Space / Heritage Images via Getty ImagesPresident John F. Kennedy at Rice University in 1962 , where he announce : “ We prefer to go to the Moon in this decennium and do the other things , not because they are easy , but because they are grueling . ”
“ Our Enterprise Flight is a historical foreign mission by any criterion , ” Charles M. Chafer , Celestis atomic number 27 - founder and CEO , write in a company blog post . “ The overarching goal of Celestis is to assist human expansion throughout the solar system . By append the DNA of these American icons to Enterprise , we establish a predecessor for future human missions , and add to the diachronic record of human exploration of deep quad . ”
According to their site , Celestis has launched 17 missions since 1997 . It serve ease “ memorial spaceflights ” in which families can put their deceased loved unity on a mission to the star , instead of sink them in the earth .
Space Frontiers/Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesPresident Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan with a space shuttle. July 1982.
Space Frontiers / Archive Photos / Hulton Archive / Getty ImagesPresident Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan with a space shuttle . July 1982 .
The troupe ’s first - ever Enterprise Flight , which will carry DNA from Chief Executive and science fiction build , will launch in 2023 and plans to pilot hundreds of miles into inscrutable blank space , beyond the “ Earth - moon system . ”
The presidents and Star Trek figures are not its only passenger , however . The Enterprise flying will transport a aggregate of 200 “ flight of stairs capsules , ” according to Space.com , which will contain “ cremate ash tree remains , DNA stuff , personal messages and heartfelt greetings from international clients on an unforgettable voyage . ”
“ This flight will indeed go into the history books , and thanks to the DNA front of historical flesh , the Enterprise Flight ’s story wo n’t just end with its entering into a solar reach , ” Celestial write on its site .
It ’s out of the question to sleep together how the four presidents chosen for the flight of stairs would have thought about it . George Washington sure as shooting would n’t have suppose such a thing possible , and Dwight Eisenhower died just months before the first moon landing in 1969 .
But Cold War presidents like John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan had one centre fixed on the stars — for them , perhaps a blank space flight of steps would feel like a thrilling last to their bequest .
After read about a distance burial company ’s plan to send the DNA of four American presidents into blank , look through these incredibleimages of deep space . Or , discover the strange story of the mysteriousradio sign that repeats from recondite spaceevery 16 twenty-four hours .
