The ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and science fiction legend Arthur C. Clarke were loaded onto a private U.S. lunar module that re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Friday after a failed moon landing. The ashes were among about 70 people, including actors James Doohan (a.k.a. Scotty) and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), who were to be deposited on the lunar surface after a successful landing. Roddenberry's ashes had previously been used on other space missions.

Astrobotic Technologies' lunar lander Peregrine successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday, but a fuel leak made landing impossible. The company believes a sticking valve was the cause. Astrobotics had the unfortunate task of figuring out what to do next and making sure the peregrine did not become a hazard in space.

Working with NASA, Peregrine was guided toward Earth and re-entered the atmosphere somewhere in the South Pacific on Friday. In addition to the ashes, the lander was loaded with various NASA experiments and equipment (the U.S. space agency reportedly paid Astrobotic more than $150 million).

Yesterday's update noted that Peregrine continued to respond but "lost telemetry" as the lander re-entered Earth's atmosphere at 3:50 AM EST on January 19. The company said in a statement, "By responsibly ending Peregrine's mission, we are doing our part to protect the future."

Peregrine was the first U.S. attempt to land on the moon since the 1970s and the first project conducted in conjunction with NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which uses private companies to perform work for NASA.

"Space exploration, especially at this stage, is a learning game, and this should not be seen as a failure, but as an incredible engineering success," said Sian Cleaver, industry manager for the EU's Orion spacecraft project. At one point it looked like this mission was doomed, but a team of engineers and scientists worked together to solve the problems, restore some of the spacecraft's capabilities, and ultimately bring it back to Earth. This is really great [but ultimately space travel is difficult and we are witnessing it here.

Whatever the intent, it seems like a fitting and somewhat poetic end to these ashes.