New funeral rocket service sends ashes into space

Entrepreneur Steven Mitchell has turned his low-cost coffin business into an aerial venture by offering mourners the ultimate in funerals, sending ashes heavenwards in rockets capable of flying at up to the speed of sound.

Mitchell, 47, an amateur rocketeer, has joined forces with New York born Paul Lavin, chemist, lawyer and rocket enthusiast to add funeral rockets to a business at present supplying coffins. Packages ranging from a do-it-yourself rocket to the speed of sound version will be available to carry a few grams of ashes that will scatter when the rocket explodes.

For the past year Mitchell has been developing Comparethecoffin.com, an online business selling coffins direct or via a tender route involving funeral directors. He recalls: “I set up the business after being completely ripped off by a funeral director over the cost of a funeral for a colleague. We’re getting 6,000 hits a month and have supplied 700-800 coffins but with 500,000 funerals a year there’s some way to go. I’m aiming for 2pc of the UK market.”

An unexpected request from a Newcastle family wanting the ashes of a relative scattered over the Tyne led to the rocket service.

Packages for rockets flying half a mile heavenwards could come out at under £300 depending on the payload.

There is insurance cover for the dedicated DIY mourner with couriers delivering the complete rocket package including fuel.

The bigger the rocket and the heavier the ground equipment needed for the launch the higher the price. Mitchell is looking for business in an area around the M25 circle although rocket launches, depending on air traffic, are permissible within five miles of airports.

Lavin, a pilot as well as rocketeer has launched more than 400 from Windsor Great Park alone. He says: “I’ve done one or two rocket funerals. We’ve talked to local funeral directors about how the rocket service could make a lot of people happy.”

Mitchell is already prepared for the launch of his next big idea: turning the business into a franchise and moving into continental Europe.

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