{"id":429438,"date":"2026-01-24T03:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T03:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/429438\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T03:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T03:47:10","slug":"space-beyond-lines-up-2027-spacex-launch-for-low-cost-memorial-cubesat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/429438\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Beyond lines up 2027 SpaceX launch for low-cost memorial cubesat"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Florida-based Space Beyond plans to start building its first memorial spacecraft next week after booking a launch on SpaceX\u2019s October 2027 rideshare mission.<\/p>\n

Ryan Mitchell, a former Blue Origin engineer who founded Space Beyond last year, said the startup is in final design review for a brick-sized cubesat designed to carry around 1,000 symbolic portions of human or pet remains sealed in Kapton film.<\/p>\n

The venture has signed an agreement to use Arrow Science & Technology\u2019s XTERRA XCD deployer to place the spacecraft into sun-synchronous orbit, where it would remain for around five years before reentering Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Mitchell said Space Beyond is self-funding its debut mission, following a Kickstarter campaign last year that reached less than 9% of a $124,300 target to cover direct costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlong the way, we\u2019ve also started selling directly to clients,\u201d Mitchell told SpaceNews.<\/p>\n

\u201cSales to date cover about 20% of the cost for the first mission, and are expected to rise as we gain exposure and the public comes to know us better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aiming to broaden access to memorial spaceflights and expand the market<\/a>, Space Beyond\u2019s prices start at $249.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, premium packages from established provider Celestis start at $3,495 for suborbital flights that return capsules as keepsakes, rising to $12,995 for missions to the moon and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely challenging to launch anything to space at such a low price,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cBut, at the end of the day, it\u2019s just an engineering challenge to solve, and that\u2019s where we shine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell now expects the direct cost of Space Beyond\u2019s inaugural mission to be around $100,000, with the cubesat\u2019s latest design targeting a five-year orbital lifetime, rather than up to 25 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re setting the expected mission duration at five years to be responsible stewards of the space in orbit,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re providing a sufficiently long mission to make it meaningful to our clients and families, while also ensuring that no long-term debris or hazards remain in orbit. Space is huge, but it is also finite. We\u2019re doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Florida-based Space Beyond plans to start building its first memorial spacecraft next week after booking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[178952,49,48,166254,167829,66,6089,306,178720,2146],"class_list":{"0":"post-429438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-arrow-science-technology","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-celestis","12":"tag-memorial","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-sn","15":"tag-space","16":"tag-space-beyond","17":"tag-startup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}