A commercial space company has launched a historic payload to space, but its cargo capsule crashed into the Pacific Ocean after failing to deploy its parachutes during reentry. The Nyx capsule, created by German aerospace startup The Exploration Company, was part of a rideshare mission that included the ashes and DNA of over 166 deceased people.
The company described the flight as “partial success (partial failure)” in a statement, citing successful launch, powered payloads in orbit, and stable communication during descent. However, the capsule lost contact just minutes before splashdown due to an unknown issue.
This is not The Exploration Company’s first experience with cargo loss; Celestis, the Texas-based memorial spaceflight company that provided the human remains, also suffered a similar incident in 2023 when a rocket containing the cremated remains of NASA astronaut Philip K. Chapman exploded over New Mexico.
The Nyx capsule carried not only ashes and DNA but also cannabis plant matter and seeds as part of an open-source citizen science project to study microgravity’s effects on germination and resilience. The company plans to conduct further flights, including a 2028 demonstration mission to the International Space Station (ISS) pending European Space Agency support.
The incident serves as a reminder of the risks involved in innovation, but the company is already planning to re-fly with lessons learned from this experience.
Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/space-cargo-of-human-remains-and-cannabis-lost-at-sea-following-mission-failure