Lai See | Way to go

In the American Way of Death Re-visited, Jessica Mitford says it is not difficult for Americans to shell out US$8,000 to US$9,000 for a funeral. Meanwhile, in Tokyo the cost of renting a burial plot and buying a tombstone is about 2.7 million yen (HK$215,000), according to Bloomberg.

Now the San Francisco-based company Elysium Space is offering a cheaper option. For just US$1,990 you can turn your loved ones into shooting stars. Elysium Space offers "awe inspiring memorial spaceflights to have a symbolic portion of a departed's ashes launched into space", its website says. "Our specially designed memorial space craft respectfully and peacefully orbits the earth for several months ... eventually in the last poetic moments, the spacecraft harmlessly re-enters the earth's atmosphere blazing as a shooting star." Meanwhile, family and friends can follow the spacecraft's journey using a mobile app.

The ashes are placed in "space grade" aluminium capsules that are engraved with the individual's initials and a message of up to 80 characters can be etched on one of the spacecraft's metal plates. In this way, we are told, this special remembrance message "will be carried to the stars".

Bookings can be made on the website but are only available to people from the US and Japan. But watch that space.

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