A $249 Ticket to the Stars: Space Beyond Is Democratizing Ashes to Space
For decades, sending cremated remains into space has captured headlines and imaginations. From sci-fi icons like Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to celebrities, including several members of that show’s cast, the concept of “ashes to space” has long felt aspirational, even unattainable, for the average family.
Ryan Mitchell, founder of Space Beyond, wants to change that.
“I think the best message to bring to Connecting Directors readers is that this is an option that is newly accessible and available to their clients, to their families,” Mitchell says. “It’s been around since the ’90s, but until now the cost has been prohibitively expensive for most people.”
Making aspirations affordable
Historically, this was a service reserved for “the space fanatics,” he said: lifelong astronomy enthusiasts, Star Trek devotees, and those willing to spend thousands, even tens of thousands, of dollars.
Believe it or not, Ashes to Space by Space Beyond is priced at $249.
“To put it in perspective,” Mitchell said, “essentially every household in the United States has a TV in it. If you go to Walmart and you look at the TVs, a 47-inch TV is exactly $249. And that’s what this service is priced at.”
It’s not insignificant, he acknowledges. “It’s not like grabbing a snack at a convenience store, but it’s also not going to put somebody in a hardship scenario.”
Space Beyond is able to offer the Ashes to Space service at such a reasonable rate through scale. Rather than launching individual memorial capsules, Space Beyond aggregates clients.
“We’re scaling to take 1,000 clients at a time… about a gram of cremated remains per client,” he explained. “What that does is it spreads out the mission cost over many, many people and makes it possible for everybody to be able to participate.”
Mitchell believes families already understand the emotional power of small portions of cremated remains.
“Even just a small amount is significant to people and meaningful,” he said, referencing memorial jewelry, keepsake urns, and other personalization options. “Just a little bit goes a long way.”
Prepared for launch
The company’s first launch is slated for October 2027 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. The satellite will fly in a sun-synchronous orbit, passing over the North and South Poles while the Earth spins beneath it.
“It travels over the entire Earth every day,” Mitchell said. “That’s just really cool.”
It’s also cool that families can track their loved one’s voyage with the orbital tracking information that Space Beyond will provide along with an official Certificate of Launch.
Mitchell’s background makes him uniquely suited to this mission. An engineer with more than 20 years designing and flying space vehicles, he spent nearly a decade at Blue Origin, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
“[Bezos] talks about how he effectively won the Amazon lottery so he can do what he’s truly passionate about, which is Blue Origin and their mission,” Mitchell explains. “The mission of Blue Origin is to democratize access to space, to make it possible for millions of people to live and work in space. And, you know, that kind of set me off on this journey. They’re doing a lot of great things at Blue Origin to lower the barrier of accessing space. But it’s still too expensive for most of us. The vast majority of us will not be able to go to space in our lifetimes. This is the gap that I’m seeking to fill with Space Beyond.”
Off the shelf and into space
Sending a loved one’s ashes to space offers a solution to a problem more and more cremation families are facing.
“One thing that resonates with a lot of my clients… is that they’ve had the ashes sitting on a shelf, or perhaps even in the back corner of a closet, and they don’t really know what to do with them,” he said. “At the time, when they had just received the ashes, they were comforting. But then, over time,… it starts to feel like it’s time to move on.… They’re searching for the right way to let go, that thing that feels right for their loved one, but they don’t really know what that thing is.”
His hope? “Sending the ashes to space will be that thing for some people.”
Every Ashes to Space participant becomes what Space Beyond calls an “Ashtronaut” — with an “h.”
“It’s small, it’s symbolic, but it’s meaningful,” Mitchell said. “I think it can do a lot to help people find the closure, the remembrance, the honoring that they want.”
Partner with Space Beyond
Mitchell invites Connecting Directors readers to reach out to discuss partnership opportunities — from affiliate relationships to deeper collaborations. You can start that conversation with him via email at ryan@ashestospace.com or by completing a contact form at https://ashestospace.com/contact/.
Space may still feel out of reach for most of us. But as Mitchell put it, “Everything in life these days seems to be getting more expensive. But paradoxically, perhaps space is actually getting cheaper.”
It’s a powerful and approachable way to quite literally go above and beyond for the families you serve!
