{"id":5772,"date":"2025-06-22T17:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T17:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/5772\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T17:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T17:19:10","slug":"san-diego-engineer-to-be-posthumously-launched-into-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/5772\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego engineer to be posthumously launched into space"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Webb<\/a>The first full-resolution image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows distant galaxies, many whose images are bent by gravity. (File image courtesy NASA)<\/p>\n

San Diego engineer Wesley Melvin Dreyer<\/a>, whose distinguished 42-year career included serving on the investigative team that probed the 1986 Challenger disaster, will complete a lifelong goal Sunday when his remains are posthumously launched into space.<\/p>\n

Dreyer is one of more than 150 worldwide clients whose remains or DNA will be aboard Perseverance Flight, Celestis Inc.\u2019s<\/a> first orbital recovery mission, according to the company. Perseverance Flight is scheduled for liftoff at 2:19 p.m. Sunday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County.<\/p>\n

During the flight, Perseverance will achieve low Earth orbit, traveling at 17,000 mph, and complete two to three full orbits around Earth before gently re-entering the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

After re-entry, the memorial capsules will land in the Pacific Ocean, where they will be recovered and returned to families as a keepsake and a lasting tribute to their loved one\u2019s journey among the stars.<\/p>\n

The mission will be provided by The Exploration Company, through SpaceX\u2019s SmallSat Rideshare program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are honored and pleased to have Mr. Dreyer on board Perseverance,\u201d Celestis Co-Founder and CEO Charles Chafer said. \u201cOur memorial space flights are tributes to a life well-lived and to those who are reaching the stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dreyer\u2019s career also included contributions to pioneering projects such as the Tomahawk missile and the Global Hawk.<\/p>\n

His daughter Kelly Dreyer said Wesley had joked that he became an engineer because he couldn\u2019t be an astronaut.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen private citizens were first being considered for space travel, dad had expressed interest but never followed through,\u201d she told the Times of San Diego. \u201cWhen we saw the Celestis brochure included in a burial planning guide, it just clicked. He would have loved this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dreyer died in October 2024 at age 77.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first full-resolution image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows distant galaxies, many whose images are bent…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,7275,7277,3549,7264,7279,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7280],"class_list":["post-5772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-celestis-inc","tag-perseverance-flight","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-space-flight","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wesley-melvin-dreyer"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}