Burial is becoming the most boring thing to do with your dead body

This summer, Alex Clements will once again make his way from the densely-wooded state of Kentucky to the flat desert landscape outside of Bend, Oregon. There, for about a week, he and his colleagues at Mesoloft will launch cremated human remains far above the Earth—at the behest of the deceased and their families.

Since it was founded in 2014, , one of a growing number of deathcare startups in the United States, has sent hundreds of pounds of human ashes miles above the Earth.