Celestis Selects Stoke Space’s Nova for Infinite Flight: Humanity’s Next Deep-Space Memorial Mission

HOUSTON, TX – December 3, 2025 – For more than three decades, Celestis, Inc. has transformed remembrance into exploration, sending the names, ashes, and DNA of pioneers and visionaries into space. Today, the company announces the next chapter in that extraordinary story: Infinite Flight, a deep-space memorial mission to be carried aboard Stoke Space’s Nova rocket, a fully and rapidly reusable medium-lift launch vehicle. Targeted for Q4 2026, Infinite Flight is the second mission in Celestis’ Voyager Service, and will mark the second commercial deep-space memorial mission in history, both conceived and flown by Celestis.

A Legacy Among the Stars

Launching from Stoke’s historic Space Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the pad that carried astronaut John Glenn into orbit aboard Friendship 7, Infinite Flight bridges past and future. Where Mercury opened the heavens to humankind, Celestis now carries humankind’s memory outward among the planets.

Each participant’s memorial capsule, containing a portion of cremated remains or DNA, will be placed aboard Nova’s upper stage. After reaching orbit, Nova will execute a dedicated engine burn, propelling the Celestis spacecraft beyond Earth’s gravity and into a heliocentric orbit. There it will remain, voyaging endlessly through deep space, a monument to life, love, and discovery.

Pioneering a Sustainable Spacefaring Future

Celestis selected Stoke for its aligned vision of sustainable, future-focused space exploration, and has engaged Ensemble to provide integration and mission management services for Infinite Flight, working with Stoke to ensure the memorial payload is expertly prepared, integrated, and delivered to its intended deep-space orbit.

Nova’s reusable design is built to revolutionize the economics and environmental footprint of high-cadence spaceflight, enabling frequent, responsible access to orbit and beyond.

By choosing Infinite Flight, participating families not only celebrate their loved ones’ lives, they become part of a milestone in the evolution of space technology. Their stories will help inaugurate an era where remembrance, science, and sustainability travel together among the stars.

“Extending Humanity’s Presence Through Legacy”

“The Infinite Flight continues what began nearly thirty years ago when we promised that remembrance could itself be an act of discovery,” said Charles M. Chafer, Celestis Co-Founder and CEO. “Our Voyager missions ensure that every story we carry into space helps extend humanity’s presence across the solar system. To fly aboard Nova, one of the most advanced reusable launch systems ever built, is both a technical and symbolic leap forward.”

About Celestis, Inc.
Founded in 1994, Celestis is the world’s first and most experienced provider of memorial spaceflights, offering the opportunity to launch symbolic portions of cremated remains or DNA on missions to suborbital space, Earth orbit, the Moon, and beyond. From Gene and Majel Barrett Roddenberry to NASA astronaut Philip K. Chapman and Nichelle Nichols, Celestis participants have represented the best of humanity’s spirit of exploration.
www.celestis.com

About Stoke Space
Stoke is scaling the space economy by providing lower-cost, on-demand transport to, through and from space. It’s developing the rapidly reusable Nova rocket designed to operate with aircraft-like frequency. Stoke’s technology development has been funded by the United States Space Force, Defense Innovation Unit, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and other government and private partners.
www.stokespace.com

About Ensemble
Ensemble was founded by ex-NASA engineers with a track record of transforming the aerospace industry. Today, the company builds on those roots by providing mission management services and expanding access to space. Leveraging decades of experience with flight hardware, we deliver comprehensive services that bring client payloads to orbit. Whether it’s a microgravity sensor or a fully integrated spacecraft, we consult from mission conception through procurement, integration, separation, and deployment to ensure each payload reaches its intended destination.
www.ensembleconsultancy.com