Cape Cod woman honors father’s love of space by sending his ashes into space

BOSTON – A Cape Cod, Massachusetts woman will honor her father’s lifelong obsession with space by sending his ashes into orbit this spring.

Lifelong love for space

“His soul is already there, but let’s put his ashes there too,” Melanie Sharrow said.

David Lavender was a news photographer and editor on Cape Cod working with NBC. Sharrow remembers her father fondly.

“He let me push buttons and help him edit, I was his little apprentice,” Sharrow said.

She said he had been obsessed with space since childhood, having grown up during the space race of the 1960s. He was also a big fan of Star Trek, a love his daughter inherited.

“He bought me toys and we launched little model rockets,” Sharrow said.

Lavender died by suicide in 2021.

“He had a lot of trauma and he did the best he could,” Sharrow said. “I see him as the strongest person I know.”

Ashes will orbit the Earth

He is now destined for the great afterlife. In April, its ashes will be launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is thanks to the company Celestis, which attaches people’s ashes to rockets and satellites that go into space. In the 1990s they buried a NASA scientist on the moon. And last January, they sent Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols into space, along with some of her colleagues, including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

This will actually be the second attempt to launch Lavender’s ashes into space. Last year the first satellite burned down prematurely.

“Normally they will orbit the Earth for five years and then return as a meteorite, like a shooting star,” says Charles Chafer, co-founder of Celestis. “The family can follow his progress in orbit on our website.”

“If it’s above us, we’ll know and we can go out and just wave at the stars,” Sharrow said.