A spacecraft carrying the remains of more than 160 people crashed into the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, June 24, losing its content in the sea. The mission intended to return the remains to families who provided them after a brief term in space, but now, they will never be seen again.
On Monday, June 23, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Transporter -14 Rideshare Mission from the Wandenberg Space Force Base in California, with 70 payloads taken to a lower orbit. The largest NYX was, a 1.6-ton (1.45-metric-ton) Reventory capsules, which was a German aerospace startup manufactured by the investigation company. “Mission possible” dubbed, this was the company’s first attempt, the first attempt to carry the customer payload, taking about 660 pounds (300 kg) cargo on a trip around the Earth. This included ashes and DNAs of more than 166 deceased people provided by Celestis, a Memorial Spaceflight Company in Houston, Texas. Although NYX successfully reached the classroom, according to Celestis, its parachute system failed during the retirement.
The company said in a statement, “As a result of this unexpected incident, we believe that we will not be able to recover or return the flight capsules.” “We share in the disappointment of our families, and we give our honest gratitude to their faith.”
Although the mission acquired several major milestones – a successful launch, orbit, and controlled reantry – Celestis admitted that its unsuccessful landing is a significant personal disadvantage to the families who have been in landing. The company said, “In the coming days, our team will reach each family to offer personally support and discuss the next stages.”
“Although we currently believe that we cannot return the flight capsules, we hope that families will find some peace to know that their loved ones were part of a historic journey, launched in space, orbiting on earth, and now resting in Pacific’s vastness, a traditional and respected sea.”
This is not the first time a Celestis has not gone according to the mission plan. In May 2023, a UP aerospace rocket carrying Explosion occurred in the funeral of a late NASA astronaut Just a few seconds of the lift in the New Mexico desert. The rocket was also carrying more than a dozen students experiment for NASA.
In a statement posted on social media on Tuesday, the exploration company considered the mission a “partial success” possible, stating that the capsule managed to nominate its payload in a nominal orbit, stabilized itself after being separated from Falcon 9, re -established the earth’s atmosphere, and re -established communication after a brief blackout period.
The company said, “But it faced an issue based on our current best knowledge, and we lost communication a few minutes before the printing.” “We are still investigating the root causes and will soon share more information. We apologize to all our customers who handed us us with our payload.”
In addition to human remains and other payloads, NYX carried forward cannabis provided by an open-source citizen science project, Martian Grow. The project, which eventually aims to grow marijuana on Mars, achieved a place on NYX and to send the case of seeds and plant into a lower-oriented orbit and to study how microgravity affects their germination and flexibility. “Cannabis is flexible, multipurpose, and biologically complex – it is ideal to study how life adapts to an extreme atmosphere such as space or Mars,” Martian Grow says.
Unfortunately, the cannabis was lost in the sea with the rest of the NYX payload. Gizmodo arrived for Martian Grow for comment, but no response was received until the time of publication.
The mission was the second flight of the possible investigation company. First, Mission Bikini launched a small retirement capsule in July 2024 in the first Arian 6 flight. The upper phase of the rocket faced an discrepancy that prevented it from launching the capsules in its revent prosecutor, making it trapped in the orbit with bikini.
The mission of this week was more ambitious, both reentry technologies and testing all technologies that support NYX, which is eventually designed to transport cargo from low-earth orbit. According to Spacecaneuse, the future recurrences of this spacecraft can also be used to move into space.
This week’s accident underlined the realization that NYX would not be ready to fly astronauts at any time at any time. Victor Maier, the lead for the business of Germany and Central Europe at the investigation company, told Spacecaneuse that the company had no plans to operate the additional test mission before the NYX demonstration flight for the International Space Station in 2028. This mission is pending support from the European Space Agency. However, the investigation company would consider ground tests for some sub -reports of the spacecraft, Maiir said.
Tuesday’s statement of the company otherwise suggests. “Taking advantage of the technical milestone obtained tomorrow and the lessons we will remove from our ongoing investigation, we will prepare to fly again as soon as possible,” it reads.
