Indian market next on radar for StardustMe

THUMBS UP: Stu Potter at the ExportNZ Hawke’s Bay awards. Picture supplied

A space and technology company founded by an East Coast entrepreneur is now eyeing expansion into India, after already opening in New Zealand and Australia.

StardustMe provides space memorial flights to celebrate life. Ashes are launched into orbit on-board SpaceX rockets to be placed amongst the stars and ultimately seed the birth of new stars.

The company designed a space-grade alloy memorial token that can be filled with a small portion of ashes. The token is sent to Cape Canaveral in Florida or Vandenberg in Los Angeles and launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

After launch it orbits the Earth for up to 10 years before finally re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere as a shooting star, leaving no residual space junk. A mobile tracker lets family and friends follow the journey through the stars.

The inaugural StardustMe launch was in February, with the next scheduled for later this year, StardustMe’s Gisborne-born co-founder Stu Potter said.

“StardustMe has a second launch with Space X this November from California which will also include a new product we have been working on,” Mr Potter said.

“StardustMe is now in Australia and we are working with a company looking to distribute our product throughout India, which is great timing with the recent successful moon landing.

“The future is looking good with a full programme of work ahead of us for which we have secured three launch permits for the coming year.”

The company’s success was recognised at last month’s ExportNZ ASB Hawke’s Bay Export Awards, where StardustMe was a finalist in the Excellence in Innovation category.

“We were up against stiff competition including long-established brands and internationally acclaimed entrepreneurs. Although we didn’t win our category, our team felt honoured to make the finals as a small start-up company, and proud to represent Tairāwhiti.”