Spacecraft carrying cannabis and human remains crashes into the ocean

an illustration of a spacecraft with a trail of fire as it enters Earth's atmosphere — An illustration of The Exploration Company's Nyx spacecraft reentering Earth's atmosphere.

(Image credit: The Exploration Company/ESA)

We've sent some pretty interesting payloads to space since the first satellite (Sputnik 1) launched on October 4th, 1957. As access to space has increased, thanks largely to the commercial space industry, so too have the types of payloads we are sending.

Consider the Nyx capsule created by German aerospace startup The Exploration Company, which launched on June 23rd from the Vandenberg Space Force Base atop a Falcon-9 rocket as part of a rideshare mission (Transporter-14). The payload for this flight (dubbed "Mission Possible") included the ashes and DNA of more than 166 deceased people provided by Celestis, a Texas-based memorial spaceflight company.

While the mission achieved orbit and a controlled reentry, the capsule's landing parachutes failed to deploy before landing. This caused the Nyx capsule to crash in the Pacific Ocean on June 24th, causing all of its cargo to be lost at sea. This was the first time The Exploration Company sent customer payloads to space, equivalent to roughly 300 kg (660 lbs) of cargo. In a statement posted on LinkedIn, the company described the flight as a "partial success (partial failure)." Per their statement:

The capsule was launched successfully, powered the payloads nominally in-orbit, stabilized itself after separation with the launcher, re-entered and re-established communication after black out. But it encountered an issue afterwards, based on our current best knowledge, and we lost communication a few minutes before splashdown. We are still investigating the root causes and will share more information soon. We apologize to all our clients who entrusted us with their payloads.

In the coming days, our team will reach out to each family individually to offer support and discuss possible next steps. Though we currently believe that we cannot return the flight capsules, we hope families will find some peace in knowing their loved ones were part of a historic journey, launched into space, orbited Earth, and are now resting in the vastness of the Pacific, akin to a traditional and honored sea scattering.

In addition to the human remains and other payloads, Nyx also carried cannabis plant matter and seeds provided by Martian Grow, an open-source citizen science project. The purpose was to study the effects of microgravity on the germination and resilience, potentially providing insight into how life could adapt and fare in the Martian environment. The first, Mission Bikini, launched a smaller reentry capsule in July 2024 atop an Ariane 6 rocket, but the capsule remained in orbit after the rocket's upper stage failed to launch it on its reentry trajectory.

This latest mission aimed to test key technologies and verify the Nyx capsule's ability to transport cargo to space. It is hoped that future iterations of the capsule will fly spacecraft to destinations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), including the International Space Station (ISS) and/or its successor stations. To this end, the company plans to conduct a demonstration flight to the ISS in 2028, which is pending support from the European Space Agency. In the meantime, the company plans to move forward and incorporate the lessons of this latest mission.

Matt Williams is a science communicator, journalist, writer, and educator with over 20 years of experience in education and outreach. His articles have appeared in Universe Today, Interesting Engineering, HeroX, Phys.org, Business Insider, Popular Mechanics, and other notable publications. He is the host of Stories from Space, a weekly podcast about the past, present, and future of spaceflight, and a science fiction author with multiple published titles.