Since the launch of the first satellite (Sputnik 1) on October 4, 1957, it has sent several interesting payloads into space. There are also types of payloads that are being sent, mainly thanks to the commercial space industry, as access to space has increased.
Consider the NYX capsule created by German aerospace launch. It was released on June 23rd by the Vandenberg Space Force Base, located above the Falcon 9 rocket as part of the ride-sharing mission (Transporter-14). The flight’s payload (known as “missionability”) contained the ashes and DNA of more than 166 deceased people provided by Celestis, a Texas-based Memorial Space Flight Company.
The mission achieved trajectory and controlled reentry, but the capsule’s landing parachute could not be deployed prior to landing. This caused the NYX capsule to crash in the Pacific Ocean on June 24th, losing all of its cargo in the ocean. This is the first time an exploration company has sent its customer payload into space, equivalent to approximately 300 kg (660 pounds) of cargo. In a statement posted on LinkedIn, the company described the flight as “partial success (partial obstacles).” According to their statement:
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The capsule was fired normally, driving the payload within nominal orbit, stabilizing itself after separation from the launcher, and re-entering communication after blackout and re-establishing it. But then we ran into problems based on our current best knowledge and lost communication a few minutes before the splashdown. We are still investigating the root cause and will soon share more information. We apologise to all our clients who left the payload to us.
We appreciate the team’s hard work and dedication to success. We have pushed boundaries with record time and cost. This partial success reflects both ambition and the inherent risks of innovation. Using the technical milestones achieved yesterday and lessons extracted from ongoing research, we prepare to fly again as quickly as possible.
It was also the second time Celestis lost a payload, with the previous payload being lost in 2023 when a rocket containing the cremated body of NASA astronaut Philip K. Chapman exploded in New Mexico. Celestis also issued a statement of sadness dol to the families of those whose bodies were lost:
In the coming days, our team will reach out to each family individually, provide support, and discuss the next steps. We believe that we cannot return flight capsules at the moment, but we hope that we find some peace by knowing that our family is part of a historic journey, set out into space, departing in orbit Earth, and now resting in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, similar to the scattering of traditional and honorable seas.
In addition to human remains and other payloads, NYX also carried the cannabis plant problems and seeds provided by Martian Grow, an open source citizen science project. The aim was to study the effects of microgravity on germination and resilience, and potentially provide insight into how life in a Martian environment can adapt and fare. The first mission bikini launched a small re-entry capsule on top of the Arian 6 rocket in July 2024, but the capsule stayed in orbit after the top of the rocket failed to activate it in the re-entry orbit.
This latest mission is aimed at testing key technologies and verifying the ability of NYX capsules to transport cargo into space. Future iterations of the capsule are expected to allow spacecraft to fly to low-Earth Orbit (LEO) destinations, including the International Space Station (ISS) and its successor stations. To this end, the company plans to run a demonstration flight to the ISS in 2028. In the meantime, the company plans to advance and incorporate the lessons from this latest mission.
The original version of this article was published today in Universe.
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