The idea gives new meaning to the famous phrase, "Space the final frontier."
Investors have approached cash-strapped Russia with the idea of making space a final resting place for those who want to foot the bill for a "space funeral."
American companies now organize "space funerals" by launching ashes of their clients into space. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and Gerald ONeil, a famous astrophysicist and an advocate of space colonies, have had outer space burials. But only a few wealthy people can afford such a ceremony.
Some think the Russian space program could benefit by providing a service where clients pay to have their ashes interred in orbit, perpetually circling the globe. But despite these overtures by international investors, the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) said it has no plans to open its launch vehicles to the dearly departed.
"Rosaviakosmos is not a funeral home," said Vyacheslav Mikhailichenko, the agency's deputy spokesperson. "Besides, the Russian Federal Space Program does not envisage any undertaking activities in space."
"Such an idea makes me feel uncomfortable," Yuri Grigoriev, RSC Energia deputy chief designer told SPACE.com. "He who was born on Earth, should remain there after death."
"Russia currently has no such projects under consideration," said Leonid Gorshkov, one of RSC Energia's designers. "We [aerospace engineers] have other more important and interesting problems to solve. I would not exclude, however, that someday somebody in Russia would like to make money on 'space funerals."
The Russian Orthodox Church does not support "space funerals" either. "Burying people in space is just a trick that has nothing to do with the paying of respect to the deceased person or with Christian traditions," said father Dmitri Grigoriev, a priest at St. Nicolas Cathedral in Washington D.C.
Despite the space agency's reticence, "space funerals" are not unfamiliar. Deep-space burials were first considered by the Soviet Union back in the 1960s. Sergey Korolev, Russian rocket chief designer and a man who masterminded a space race between the Soviet Union and the United States, died January 1966.
Korolev was beloved by Soviet cosmonauts who considered him (for good reason) the "father" of the Soviet space program. They were aware of his dream to send a manned mission to the Moon, and to get there before the Americans.
Korolevs body was cremated. Yuri Gagarin, the first person to go into space, instructed fellow-cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov to walk down to the furnace of the crematorium and take a portion of Korolevs ashes.
Gagarin swore to himself and others to deliver Korolevs ashes to the Moon. However, Nina Koroleva, Korolev's widow, asked Gagarin to return the ashes to the urn where the rest of the chief designers remains were resting. (The urn had been placed into the Kremlin Wall, the highest posthumous honor a person could get in the Soviet Union.)
Nina Koroleva felt that dividing the deceased's ashes was against Christian tradition.
Gagarin promised to return the ashes, but before he could fulfill his vow he died in a training flight crash in March 1968. Another person who might have known where the remains were was Vladimir Komarov, but he was killed earlier, during Soyuz spacecraft inaugural flight in April 1967.
These two men took the mystery of Korolevs ashes to their graves.
Valentin Glushko, a Soviet rocket chief designer from 1974 through 1989, went as far as to request a "space funeral." In April 1988, Glushko suffered from a stroke. Apparently feeling he would not recover, in August 1988 he asked his colleagues to manufacture a special urn and to send his ashes to Venus.
Glushko died in January 1989. His request was not fulfilled, however, and he was buried in Novodevichye Cemetery, a resting place for distinguished Soviet and Russian citizens.
According to Artur Arakelov, a department chief at RSC Energia, technically Russia has the necessary capabilities to "bury" a persons remains in space.
This can be done in one of two ways:
If a client or their relatives wish the deceased's ashes to circle the globe, an urn will be launched into low Earth orbit (LEO). If they want the urn to "hang" over one particular location on Earth, the container will be lofted into a much higher geostationary orbit at an altitude of 22,300 miles (35,885 kilometers).
The second way is certainly more expensive. But you get what you pay for -- "If the urn is launched into LEO, it will become just regular space debris," remarked Arakelov.
Overall, the Russian space community is not enthusiastic about such an undertaking (excuse the pun).
Regular Russians have a more entertaining attitude toward the idea of being "interred" off of Earth. All of them believe, however, this can only be done by the United States.
"It is so romantic to have your own ashes pulverized in space," said Irina, a 46-year-old housewife. "But it should be very expensive. It is more economical just to come to America and die there."
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