Topeka-area resident's ashes going into space with ashes of 'Star Trek' creator and actors

In what turned out to be their last conversation, John Zempel told his sister, Audrey Zempel White, in March 2022 that he'd arranged for their names to be among many put on a flash drive that was going to the moon.

That flash drive went around the moon in November 2022 in an unmanned capsule on NASA's Artemis I mission, White told The Capital-Journal.

But by that time, Zempel had died.

He died about a week after they spoke, at age 68, on March 21, 2022, she said.

Zempel's wife, Linda Vidosh-Zempel, fatally shot him, then fatally shot herself at their home north of Topeka, authorities said. Vidosh-Zempel was thought to have had mental health issues, they said.

White said she went online and found the "best way possible" to memorialize her brother — by sending some of his ashes on a space flight that takes off Jan. 8 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The flight's other contents will include hair samples from three deceased presidents and small amounts of ashes from the cremated bodies of four actors and the creator of the original "Star Trek" TV series.

Zempel loved "Star Trek," his sister said.

Gene Roddenberry, Nichelle Nichols and James Doohan honored

The flight is being arranged by Houston-based Celestis, a company that specializes in memorializing people by sending their cremains and DNA samples to outer space.

Celestis' website identifies Zempel as being among more than 200 people whose ashes or DNA will be on that "Enterprise Flight," so named in honor of the starship in the original "Star Trek" TV series.

The commercially owned rocket involved is appropriately named "Vulcan."

One of Star Trek's main characters, "Mr. Spock," is half human and half Vulcan.

The Jan. 8 flight will be Celestis' first to go to "deep space," meaning the capsules won’t eventually fall to Earth.

It will transport hair samples from Presidents George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.

The flight will include small samples of ashes of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and actors Nichelle Nichols, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan and Majel Barrett Roddenberry.

In addition, it will transport ashes of Apollo astronaut Philip Chapman, who never got to go to space while alive.

Launch organizers hope the rocket will wind up approximately 205 million miles from Earth, roughly past the orbit of Mars.

Celestis' minimum charge is $12,999 for sending a person's ashes or DNA to deep space on its Enterprise Flight, its website says.

"It was an expense," White said. "But it was also the best way I could honor my brother."

John Zempel was active Audubon Society and Holton Ham Radio Club

White, who lives in San Jose, California, said her brother was about 15 years older than her.

When she was a little girl, he would return to their Michigan home and spend time with her as he was on break from college, she said.

Zempel earned a doctorate in toxicology and pharmacology from the University of Kansas, his obituary said. Zempel subsequently worked for Dow Chemical in Texas, then took what White said was his "favorite job" teaching science at a private Catholic high school in Tennessee.

Zempel was a "natural educator" who was good at explaining concepts to people in ways they could easily understand, White said.

Zempel moved in about 2007 back to Kansas, this time to the Topeka area, White said.

Near the end of his life, he spent his days working to restore his yard into a natural habitat for native species, his obituary said.

It said Zempel was also active in the Audubon Society and Holton Ham Radio Club, and served as a docent at the Topeka Zoo.

His love of birding took him to destinations that included Alaska, Ecuador, Peru and the Galapagos Islands, his obituary said.

Victim's sister has been trained as a 'grief coach'

"John Zempel’s life was cut short as a result of the unstable actions of another," his obituary said. "While his physical ending was tragic, John lived a life filled with love, compassion, patience, devotion and kindness."

White said that since her brother's death, she's undertaken training as a "grief coach" as a way to honor him and help others who are going through loss and grief.

"It's a way to make meaning out of losing my brother the way I did," she said.

White said she and her brother talked often about space, which helped make it easy for her to decide what to do with some of his ashes.

"It's just so fitting that he can be honored this way," she said.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: 'Enterprise Flight' will send Topeka-area man's ashes into deep space