DNA material from the four late Presidents of the United States (US) will be flown into space. This procession was carried out as a tribute to George Washington, Dwight D Eisenhower, John F Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
The flight of DNA material into space was carried out by Celestis, a company engaged in funeral processions in space based in Texas, USA.
The flight was announced by Celestis in a blog post on its official website on February 20, 2023, right on President's Day celebrations. The launch will take place this year in a special capsule inside the United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket.
Besides carrying the DNA of four US Presidents, this mission also brought with it the DNA of several legendary 'Star Trek' actors who have also died and superstars in the world of science fiction.
There are cremated ash samples and DNA samples of Nichelle Nichols, DeForest Kelley, 'Star Trek' creator Gene Roddenberry and his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry, 'Star Trek' character engineer James 'Scotty' Doohan and '2001: A Space Odyssey', 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' VFX Master Douglas Trumbull, and several others.
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"The DNA that will be present from this flight will be used as a data storage method that will tell the story of America and mankind that can be used by future civilizations settling in outer space as a biological history book," said Celestis quoted from IFL Science, Thursday (2 /3/2023).
Along with all the things they can currently glean from DNA, Celestis hopes that future advances will be able to pinpoint the entirety of a person from their DNA alone, making it possible to make this an important information storage method for preserving humanity.