History Main / BurialInSpace

%%* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Sting" did this referencing ''Film/{{Star Trek II|The Wrath of Khan}}''. %%What they did?

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* ''Series/RedDwarf'':
** In the [[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonITheEnd first episode]], George [=MacIntyre's=] remains get shot into space and Lister does it with the rest of the crew in a DeletedScene.
** In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVIIStokeMeAClipper Stoke Me A Clipper]]" when the "prime" Rimmer takes up the torch of the dimension-hopping space hero "Ace Rimmer" he and Lister place the previous Ace's holo-bee in a small capsule and shoot it into a planetary ring composed of similar holo-bee coffins.
* In ''Series/{{V 1983}}'', one of the female villains ends up sharing a space coffin with the man she arranged to have killed. Only ''she'' isn't yet dead when they launch it into space.

* In ''Series/The100'', the deceased from TheArk are flushed out into space, but with the odd twist that they're meant to fall back to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere, as a way of returning them to their ancestral home.
* In ''Series/Avenue5'', several casualties of the accident that sent the giant space liner ''Avenue 5'' off-course are sent out an airlock in coffins. Unfortunately, the ship is massive enough and the coffins are launched so poorly that they wind up orbiting the vessel for the remainder of the series.
* ''Series/SpaceAboveAndBeyond'' sees navy-style funeral services conducted aboard the ''Saratoga'', complete with the coffin (a cylindrical capsule) being ejected into space. Interestingly, in keeping with the show's wholesale borrowing of real life military terminology and traditions, this is referred to as burial "'''''at''''' space," rather than "''in'' space," echoing "burial at sea".

* ''Film/TheBlackHole'': witnessing a burial in space—in a starship where the whole crew is supposed to be robotic—tips off Captain Holland that Reinhardt had lied.

%%* Dizzy Flores in the ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' film. Mostly because [[NominalImportance she's a main character]]; none of the thousands of unnamed soldiers who die onscreen are ever seen getting such a lavish service. Her funeral serves mainly as a vehicle for Rico's CharacterDevelopment by demonstrating that he finally understands the concept of sacrifice during war. %%What lavish service has Dizzy got?
%%* ''Film/TheBlackHole'' has the "humanoid robots" perform one of these for one of their own, which is another clue towards TheReveal. The coffin is shot into the black hole rather than the usual sun. %%What did the "humanoid robot" do?

* ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' is the TropeCodifier, although from this list it is not the oldest. After Spock's HeroicSacrifice to get the warp core back online, his body is fired from the torpedo bay over the Genesis Planet. The coffin/torpedo/[[Series/{{Seinfeld}} giant sunglasses case]] was actually fired ''at a planet''; also a major part of the set-up for ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock'' [[note]]The movie's novelization states that Kirk had intended for Spock's body to be cremated during re-entry.[[/note]]

* ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' is the TropeCodifier, although from this list it is not the oldest. After Spock's HeroicSacrifice to stop a major warp core malfunction, his body is sent into space. The coffin/torpedo/[[Series/{{Seinfeld}} giant sunglasses case]] was actually fired ''at a planet''; also a major part of the set-up for ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock''

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' has the burial of Paolo Cassius, the original captain of the White Base... with the capsule actually exploding after moving a safe distance away from the ship.
* Also used in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]''. After Lacus's BodyDouble Meer Campbell pulls a HeroicSacrifice for Lacus, her body is first retrieved by the group (with Athrun [[BridalCarry carrying her in his arms]] and dressed [[WhiteShirtofDeath in a]] [[EtherealWhiteDress white gown]]). Then Meer's body is placed in a space capsule full of white flowers, and after Lacus tearfully says goodbye, the capsule is shot into space.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'': Vice Admiral Stukov was given one of these at the end of the ''Brood War'' Terran campaign, with the UED newsreel depicting his coffin being shot into space from the ''Aleksander''. [[spoiler:His coffin eventually ended up in the hands of a Zerg cerebrate, who brought him back to life and setting off the chain of events that led to his reappearance in ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm''.]]

%%* Silbad in ''Animation/TimeMasters'' after DiabolusExMachina kicks in. His short funeral is looked over by one of the bizarre aliens that caused his {{temporal paradox}} death. %%Where does this funeral take place?

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': When the "prime" Rimmer takes up the torch of the dimension-hopping space hero "Ace Rimmer" he and Lister place the previous Ace's holo-bee in a small capsule and shoot it into a planetary ring composed of similar holo-bee coffins.

* In ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', Dave Bowman releases Frank Poole's body into space mainly because he needs both of the space pod's arms to open the emergency airlock. (In the novel, after deactivating HAL he does the same with the men killed in hibernation. In the ''3001'' novel, Frank [[BackFromTheDead gets better]].)

* In ''Film/{{Outland}}'', Marshal O'Niel wants to know where the bodies of the miners who've died after going crazy have gone. He's told they're taken away on the shuttle and ThrownOutTheAirlock halfway to the space station. "Burial at sea, and all that." Of course, this is a useful way of [[DestroyTheEvidence ensuring there are no bodies around to autopsy]].

* ''Literature/TheCulture'' practices [[HurlItIntoTheSun cremation in space]] (using teleporters, rather than any undignified ''hurling.'')

** ''[[Literature/StarWarsAllegiance Allegiance]]'' has a mortally wounded spacer named Tannis ask Mara Jade to "bury him in space." She does.

* ''Series/SpaceAboveAndBeyond'' sees navy-style funeral services conducted aboard the ''Saratoga'', complete with the coffin (a cylindrical capsule) being ejected into space. Interestingly, in keeping with the show's wholesale borrowing of real life military terminology and traditions, this is referred to as burial "'''''at''''' space," rather than "''in'' space," echoing "burial at sea."

* During the Gemini program, the question was raised as to what action to take if an astronaut died during an EVA, since it would be impossible for his colleague to fit the body back into the cramped cabin. The initial instruction was to ''re-enter with the hatch open, towing the body behind the capsule on its safety tether.'' Only after it was pointed out that this would result in the capsule burning up was the decision changed to "Okay, cut him loose." If that were to have happened, as noted above, the body would've eventually re-entered on its own, likely within a few weeks.

*** A portion of Gene Shoemaker's ashes were placed on the Lunar Prospector probe that was deliberately crashed into the Moon in 1999, making Shoemaker the first human to be buried on another world.

* In ''Anime/{{Planetes}}'', astronauts at one point occasionally chose to be buried in a space coffin, but the practise has been banned by the time the show is set. One episode deals with the consequences of debris section finding such a coffin.

** In the episode "Ceremonies of Light and Dark", those crew who died in the previous episode's battle were given a mass funeral, with a whole line of space coffins being shot at the star Epsilon Eridani, escorted part of the way by a formation of Starfury space fighters (with one fighter peeling off as part of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_man_formation "Missing Man" formation]]). Worth noting, Commander Ivanova appeared to have used her PhotographicMemory to [[TheDeadHaveNames memorize the list of names]] to be read at the memorial, rather than reading from notes.
** A few episodes later, when Kosh dies, his encounter suit is placed in his Vorlon transport, and it flies itself into the star for an alien version of this trope.

[[folder:Comic Book]]

* Wolff, in the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' adventure "Explorers On The Moon", buries ''himself'' in space [[HeroicSacrifice to save the rest of the expedition]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'' also did it a number of times. One instance occurred in the episode "Take the ''Celestra''", where an elderly captain had made a HeroicSacrifice during the attempt to retake the titular factory ship from mutineers.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' ("The Schizoid Man"). Dr. Ira Graves' casket is beamed into space, per his last wishes.

** "Latent Image": A photon torpedo casing is fired into a sun, bearing the body of dead ensign Jetal.
** Also in "One Small Step" where the crew has a funeral with full honors for an early space explorer whose body they discovered.
* The pilot episode of ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' shows a fallen Klingon warrior receiving this from his comrades. Instead of being shot into space like a torpedo, however, his coffin comes to rest on the hull of the warship ''Sarcophagus''.
* On ''Series/{{The 100}}'', the deceased from TheArk are flushed out into space, but with the odd twist that they're meant to fall back to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere, as a way of returning them to their ancestral home.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Burial in the Sun? From Earth's orbit, it would take a delta-''v'' (change in velocity, usually written as ∆''v'') of 26.3 km/sec to de-orbit into the Sun. To compare, that's 58% more ∆''v'' than the 16.6 km/sec required to achieve a velocity that would leave the Solar System from Earth.

* ''VideoGame/WingCommander'': Almost any pilot (including the player) that dies gets one of these, complete with 21 gun salute as the funeral crew sends the coffin flying into space. In the first game, if it's a wingman that dies Blair vows to avenge the dead pilot... even if ''he'' is the reason they died, in an UnfriendlyFire situation.
* ''Videogame/XWing'' and ''Videogame/TieFighter'' have one when the player character is killed.
* Happens in one of the cinematics of ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft|I}}''. It's implied to be Vice-Admiral Stukov's, since it's his death they're lying about in the voice-over.

* In a twist, ''Videogame/SunlessSkies'' has the poor of London having to resort to their coffins just being dumped out in space to float forever in whole fields of glassy debris called Bully's Acres. Those with better means actually get buried in a particular bit of floating terrain turned into a graveyard.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', your Science Ships might stumble upon a space coffin as an anomaly and find a long-dead alien species inside. You can choose to either examine the body and coffin for a set amount of research points in all three research fields (physics, society, and engineering) or send it on its way to gain a higher number of just society research points. [[spoiler:There's a chance that you might make FirstContact with said alien species later, in which case they will not be happy about you desecrating their dead like that.]]

* The ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' quest "Call of the Tempestarii" ends with dead Sevagoth, locked in a lifepod and finally reunited with his shadow, being ejected from your railjack in the orbit above Earth.

** Corran's father's ashes were left to drift in space, apparently not in a container. While dating the daughter of his father's mortal enemy, he once jokes that his father's ashes are trying to coalesce to stop him.

* ''Videogame/{{XWing}}'' and ''Videogame/TieFighter'' have one when the player character is killed.

* ''Videogame/{{Xwing}}'' and ''Videogame/TieFighter'' have one when the player character is killed.