Send your kitty or canine into the cosmos with Celesitis Pets (Getty Images)

It’s billed as ‘The most unique pet memorial service in the universe’ and we have to agree. While some owners settle for a simple garden burial or perhaps an understated urn of ashes on the mantlepiece, Houston-based company Celestis Pets are the world’s first company to offer memorial spaceflights, sending the cremated remains of dearly departed pets into outer space.

Celestis has been sending the cremated remains of humans into the space since 1995. Due to demand, it has now announced the launch a pet service for owners who want to look up at the night sky and know there is a little piece of their kitty or canine in the cosmos.

Owners can choose from four furry space odysseys. For a mere £595.00 ($995) your pet can take the Earth Rise trip into space and back, send them around the earth with the Earth Orbit voyage for £3,010 ($4,995) or if you’re willing splash out £7,500 ($12,500) they can go into deep space or to the moon!

First to be fired up into the great unknown is the remains of an Australian Shepherd, aptly named Apollo who will journey on Celestis’s maiden pet voyage from Spaceport America in New Mexico on the 7th October 2014.

Find out more about Celestis Pets at celestispets.com