Chad Keller always wanted to be an astronaut, but his vision wasn’t good enough to pass the military requirements to become a fighter pilot.
So he pursued a degree in aerospace engineering, still hoping to someday make it into space. Unfortunately, Chad died on September 11, 2001 - he was on flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon.
Fast forward 20 years, thanks to the efforts of NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, Chad finally made it into space.
After reading about Chad’s lifelong passion for space travel at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Chris reached out to Chad’s father with a proposition: He was heading into space soon and wondered if Chad would like to tag along.
On April 2020, when Chris lifted off, he had a photo and some of Chad’s ashes with him.
(Image: Getty)