A spacecraft carrying the remains of more than 160 people crashed into the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, June 24, leaving its contents lost at sea. The mission was intended to return the remains to the families who had provided them after a brief stay in space, but now they will never be seen again.
On Monday, June 23, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Transporter-14 resupply mission from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base, which launched 70 payloads into low Earth orbit. The largest of these was Nyx, a 1.6-ton (1.45 metric tons) reentry capsule manufactured by German aerospace startup The Exploration Company. It was the company’s first attempt at what it dubbed “Mission Possible,” which took on about 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of cargo and flew around the Earth. This included the ashes and DNA of more than 166 deceased people, provided by Celestis, a memorial space company based in Houston, Texas, for spaceflight. According to Celestis, although Nyx successfully reached orbit, its parachute system failed during reentry.
“As a result of this unforeseen event, we believe that we will not be able to recover or return the flight capsules on board,” the company said in a statement. “We share the disappointment of our families and express our sincere gratitude for their trust.”
While the mission achieved several key milestones, including a successful launch, orbit and controlled reentry, Celestis acknowledged that the failed landing marks a significant personal loss for the families involved. “In the coming days, our team will contact each family individually to offer support and discuss possible next steps,” the company said.
“While we currently believe we will not be able to return the capsules, we hope the families will find peace in knowing that their loved ones were part of a historic journey, launched into space, orbiting the Earth, and now resting in the Pacific Ocean, similar to a traditional and honorable burial at sea.”
This is not the first time that a Celestis mission has gone awry. In May 2023, a UP Aerospace rocket carrying the cremated remains of a late NASA astronaut exploded a few seconds after takeoff over the New Mexico desert. The rocket was also carrying more than a dozen student experimental cargoes for NASA.
In a statement posted on social media on Tuesday, The Exploration Company deemed Mission Possible a “partial success,” explaining that the capsule managed to power the payload in orbit, stabilize after separation from the Falcon 9, re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere, and re-establish communication after a brief period of disconnection.
“But after that, a problem arose based on our current knowledge, and we lost communication a few minutes before the crash,” the company said. “We are still investigating the root cause and will share more information soon. We apologize to all our customers who entrusted us with their cargo.”
In addition to human remains and other payloads, Nix was carrying cannabis provided by Martian Grow, an open-source citizen science project. The project, which aims to grow marijuana on Mars, provided space on Nix to send seeds and plant materials into low Earth orbit and study how microgravity affects their germination and persistence. “Cannabis is resilient, multipurpose, and biologically complex, making it ideal for studying how life adapts to extreme environments like space or Mars,” the Martian Grow website says.
Unfortunately, the cannabis was lost at sea along with the rest of Nyx’s payload. Gizmodo reached out to Martian Grow for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Mission Possible was The Exploration Company’s second flight. The first, Mission Bikini, launched a smaller capsule aboard the first Ariane 6 launch vehicle in July 2024. The rocket’s upper stage experienced an anomaly that prevented the capsule from launching on its reentry trajectory, and it was stuck in orbit with Bikini attached.
This week’s mission was more ambitious, testing both re-entry technologies and all the technologies supporting Nyx, which is designed to transport cargo to and from low Earth orbit. Future iterations of this spacecraft could even be used to deliver crews into space, SpaceNews reports.
This week’s accident underscores the realization that Nyx will not be ready for astronaut flights in the near future. Viktor Mayer, business manager for Germany and Central Europe at The Exploration Company, told SpaceNews that the company has no plans to conduct additional test missions before the Nyx demonstration flight to the International Space Station in 2028. This mission is awaiting support from the European Space Agency. However, according to Mayer, the research company will consider the possibility of conducting ground tests of some subsystems of the spacecraft.
The company’s Tuesday statement said otherwise. “Using the technical advances made yesterday and the lessons we will learn from our ongoing investigation, we will prepare to re-fly as soon as possible,” the statement said.
