In the early hours of January 8, the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket is scheduled to blast off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and begin the one-and-a-half-month journey of the first-ever commercial lunar lander, Peregrine. Inside the lander are a host of scientific instruments from NASA and other space agencies, a physical Bitcoin, and DNA samples of science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
Also on board will be Giuseppe De Matola, a renowned Neapolitan saxophonist who will be flying to the edge of the Universe. De Matola passed away on May 16, 2022, and was a physicist and great astronomy enthusiast. He regretted not being able to see the future of space exploration. And so, his ashes, along with the DNA of his partner, geologist and Italian Renaissance scholar Ann Pizzorusso, are aboard the Vulcan Rocket on a voyage called Enterprise that will travel some 185 million miles (297 million km) to create the Enterprise Station, humanity’s first outpost in the depths of space.
The rocket contains the ashes of many people, but most notably Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his wife Majel and a host of actors Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Nyota Uhura), Jackson De Forest Kelley (Dr. Leonardo McCoy) and other members of the original cast. Also on board is Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, who co-wrote the screenplay for the film “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the DNA of U.S. Presidents Washington, Eisenhower, and Kennedy.
The Vulcan Centaur rocket will carry Astrobiotics’ Peregrine Lunar Lander, which will be dropped so it can reach the Moon in February.
The rest of the rocket with ashes and DNA will travel to deep space where it will establish the Enterprise Station, the first outpost representing humanity, and begin transmitting data back to Earth.
Giuseppe De Matola will have the honor of representing his beautiful Naples out in space.
