On June 23, just after nightfall, a Falcon 9 rocket arced into the upper atmosphere from the coast of California, carrying with it one of the more peculiar biological experiments ever launched into orbit. Tucked inside a compact incubator no larger than a suitcase were algae, fungi, and more than 900 other biological samples—among them, several hundred cannabis seeds and, perhaps oddest of all, the ashes and DNA of over 150 people.

The cannabis-containing biological incubator was called MayaSat-1, and it was part of a daring experiment to see how life endures in one of the most punishing environments accessible from Earth: a polar orbit, where cosmic radiation is up to 100 times greater than on the International Space Station.

The capsule, built by The Exploration Company and called Nyx Mission Possible, was designed to loop the planet three times, plunging through zones of charged particles above the poles, then reenter Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. A recovery team was standing by.

That splashdown never happened.

A few minutes before the capsule was expected to touch the water, communication was lost. The parachute system failed. The spacecraft, still moving at thousands of kilometers per hour, crashed into the ocean.

The loss was a blow, not just to researchers, but to the idea that space biology might be opening up to the public.

Among the 70 payloads aboard the rocket was Martian Grow, a crowdfunded, open-science project that placed cannabis seeds and plant material inside MayaSat-1. The group describes itself as aiming to “break down the walls, challenge the gatekeepers, and democratize science—not for profit, but for the pursuit of knowledge itself.”

“Cannabis is resilient, multipurpose, and biologically complex,” reads the project’s website, “making it ideal for studying how life adapts to extreme environments like space or Mars.”

A Rocket, a Seed Bank, and a Scientific Gamble Gone Wrong

This was not the first time cannabis has been sent into space. In 2019, hemp and cannabis plant matter were flown to the International Space Station, where researchers studied how the absence of gravity affected plant development. “On Earth, plants are constantly working to defy gravity in order to rise above the ground,” said Dr. Jonathan Vaught, CEO of Front Range Biosciences, in a 2021 interview with Boulder Weekly. “But since they were not utilizing this energy in zero-gravity conditions, we were able to observe where different biological changes started to occur.”

The idea behind MayaSat-1 went further: rather than growing plants in microgravity, it sought to expose dormant biological materials to a heavy dose of radiation, then return them to Earth to see what had changed. The cannabis seeds, for example, would have been cultivated over several generations, analyzed for physiological, biochemical, or genetic mutations—shifts in root structure, cannabinoid production, drought resistance.

But with the capsule lost, none of those post-mission studies can proceed.

The Capsule That Never Came Home

The Exploration Company, which developed the return capsule, described the event as a “partial success (partial failure).” In a public statement, the company reported that the spacecraft launched and stabilized successfully, powered the payloads in orbit, reentered the atmosphere, and reestablished communication after blackout. But an anomaly occurred “a few minutes before splash down.”

“We are still investigating the root causes and will share more information soon,” the company stated. “We apologize to all our clients who entrusted us with their payloads.”

Not Just Seeds But Ashes, Too

Also aboard was a ceremonial payload from Celestis, the space-burial company. Known for launching human remains into space—including hair from four U.S. presidents in a 2023 flight—this mission was intended to be the first to return cremated remains to Earth after an orbital journey. The ashes and DNA of 166 people had been loaded aboard the Nyx capsule.

“The spacecraft completed two orbits around Earth, meeting our criteria for a successful Earth Orbit service,” the company explained in a statement. “However, we regret to share that an anomaly occurred during reentry, specifically, the parachute system failed, resulting in the Nyx capsule impacting the Pacific Ocean and dispersing its contents at sea.”

Celestis added, “We hope families will find some peace in knowing their loved ones were part of a historic journey, launched into space, orbited Earth, and are now resting in the vastness of the Pacific, akin to a traditional and honored sea scattering.”

The MayaSat-1 experiment was designed to probe a realm of biology that remains largely uncharted: how living systems endure deep-space radiation. Scientists have long known that radiation can scramble DNA, activate or silence genes, and trigger unpredictable metabolic shifts. But such effects are difficult to study on Earth, or even on the ISS, where radiation exposure is comparatively mild.

Genoplant has said it is already developing a more advanced capsule, one that could support plant growth in orbit over long durations. That next step is scheduled for a test flight in 2027.

For now, though, the MayaSat-1 mission joins a long lineage of space experiments that reached skyward—and returned only in spirit.

The cannabis seeds, like the ashes, remain somewhere in the Pacific. They made it to space, if only briefly, and circled the Earth three times. But their secrets are lost to the deep. For now.