Firm offers to help people rest in space

Taiwan is one of the most densely populated places in the world, and there’s not much more room for new cemeteries - but a US firm is offering a solution: shooting people’s remains into space.

Houston-based Celestis announced today that it has signed a deal with one of Taiwan’s biggest funeral homes, Baushan Enterprise, to provide “space burials” to the Taiwanese.

Robert Tysor, chief executive of Celestis, explained that ashes can be packed into an aluminum tube about the size of a lipstick container and shot into space on commercial rockets from bases in the United States and Russia.

The tube orbits Earth once every 90 minutes before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and burning up, he said. It can orbit for months or even years, he said.

“It helps one fulfill the instinctive desire to explore space,” Tysor said.

The space burials will cost about the same as the average price of a burial in Taiwan.