Late Nashville native to be honored with memorial flight to space, dream come true

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A late Nashville native woman will be honored with a memorial spaceflight, making her dream of space travel finally come true.

“We are honored to be chosen to provide a final journey to space as a memorial for Ms. Megan Hilary Williams, ” said Charles M. Chafer, Co-Founder and CEO of Celestis, Inc.

The pioneer and global leader in Memorial Spaceflight Services, Celestis, Inc., announced the countdown for the launch Wednesday.

The Nashville native, among others being honored, Ms. Megan Hilary Williams, was passionate about space from an early age.

She dreamed of one day becoming an aviator or an astronaut and even attended a Space Camp in Huntsville, AL at age 10.

Her second passion to help people led her to a career as a top lawyer in Nashville. She attended and graduated from DePaul University in Chicago, followed by Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, FL.

Her success led to her admittance to the National Advocated Top 40 under 40 list in 2016.

Megan also enjoyed spending time with her family along with traveling and experiencing new countries and cultures. A women of many dreams and passions can now fulfill her dream of venturing into space.

“Her family and friends will be able to view the lift off from historic Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral and can track her spacecraft in orbit at our website as she and all the other participants of the Ascension flight orbit Earth every 90 minutes - a fitting tribute,” Chafer added.

Ascension’s launch service will be provided by OmniTeq, through SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare program.

The Ascension flight will carry a symbolic portion of the cremated remains or DNA of each flight participant.

The participants will be deployed into low Earth orbit and circle the planet for nearly a decade before eventually reentering the Earth’s atmosphere, harmlessly roaming around like a shooting star in final tribute.

The Ascension Flight, scheduled to take off May 25, 2022 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, will launch into the Earth orbit on the Transporter 5 mission aboard a Falcon 9 Block 5 launch vehicle.

This is Celestis' 10th such launch and their 23rd overall mission since the founding of the company in 1994.

The Ascension Flight was given its name as to symbolize the grief, spiritualism and fulfillment that is experienced with Celestis’ missions.

More about Megan Hilary Williams can be found here.

Get reports like this and all the news of the day in Middle Tennessee delivered to your inbox each morning with the FOX 17 News Daily Newsletter.