A Chester County boy wanted to see the world but died at 16. Now his ashes are going to space.

In his brief time in this world, Phillip Diaz saw and savored more than what most people do in a lifetime.

Born into a family of travelers, a passion for adventure ignited in him at an early age. When the Glenmoore teenager lost his life at 16 to an accident while on a family vacation, he’d already decided to study history in college. He wanted to understand other cultures, not just visit them. His joy for life and discovery was incandescent.

“He was our star,” said his mother, Aymee Comas-Diaz.

Soon, in an unusual but fitting tribute, Phillip Diaz’s essence will be among the stars forever.

In a few months, some of Phillip’s ashes, along with the cremated remains or DNA of over 200 other departed souls, will journey into space aboard Serenity, the latest mission of Houston-based Celestis and its Memorial Spaceflight Services.

Phillip’s voyage will be Celestis’ 26th mission of remembrance since its founding in 1994. Its clients have come from all over the world. Those who have taken these journeys range from the very young to the very old. They have come from all walks of life — truck drivers, homemakers, scientists, some cast members of Star Trek, astronauts, free spirits, and adventurers.

“The fundamental thing that ties almost everyone together is an interest in space, an interest in space exploration, or just a sense that they find it appropriate to somehow rejoin the universe at their time of need,” said Charles M. Chafer, Celestis CEO and co-founder.

Celestis offers four different space tribute experiences, either in place of a traditional funeral or as a unique tribute. They range from $3,495 for the Earth Rise flights that travel with a loved one’s DNA or ashes into space and return with them as a keepsake, to upward of $12,995 for the Luna Service that gives the ashes or DNA a permanent rest on the moon, as with NASA planetary geologist Eugene Shoemaker.

Also in that upper range is the Voyager Service which affords a permanent celestial journey into deep space. One of those transports included remains of the Star Trek luminaries like creator Gene Roddenberry, his spouse and cast member Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, as well as James Doohan who played Scotty. Their flight was called, appropriately, the Enterprise.

The Diaz family chose a fourth option for Phillip. His ashes along with the remains of his fellow Serenity flight passengers will travel into space and orbit the Earth for several years before it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere. Once there, according to Celestis, it will combust and vaporize “like a shooting star.”

When Phillip’s mother heard about it, it sounded perfect for her boy.

“I looked at my husband, and I said to him, ‘This is the way for Phillip to see the whole world.’ And of course my husband said, ‘Then we have to do it.’”

Phillip’s older sister Katerina, now 20, agreed.

Creative, inquisitive and kind, he had a light that shone from within. It was a light he was eager to share, and he did that from an early age in many places. His father Jeffrey Diaz’s finance career had the family moving quite a bit. At first, Florida was home, but the family also lived for a while in Doylestown, then Colorado, Pittsburgh and most recently Glenmoore.

Phillip was supposed to have graduated from Downingtown High School East this spring.

In lots of ways, he was a regular kid. He loved playing video games, reading comic books, and spending time with his friends. He was also a movie buff, with a special love for Stephen King adaptations.

But traveling was his passion. With his family, he had already been to 17 countries and 26 states, and there was so much more he wanted to do and see. On the family’s many vacations, Phillip was never just along for the ride.

“He was like our travel guide,” said Comas-Diaz, a college compensation analyst. “He would always study up on the places we were going to, and he had so many amazing plans for the future.”

Each of the children was promised their own special trip for high school graduation. In fall 2023, Phillip was still only a junior, but he had already envisioned an epic family adventure. Fascinated by the Habsburg Empire, the budding history scholar had charted out a multi-country journey for them to take together through the Danube River Valley in June 2025.

Before that, however, the family was celebrating Thanksgiving 2023 with a cruise to the Bahamas. Which is where Phillip suffered a fatal fall from a balcony on the cruise ship.

There is no consolation for such a loss, but Phillip’s family has tried to find ways to keep his memory and his spirit alive. They started Phil’s Bright Star, a Facebook group that encourages people to leave little stars made of different materials wherever they go. People who find them are asked to go to the Facebook page and tell where they found them.

So far, Comas-Diaz said, Phillip’s stars have been left all over the country and in over 30 nations.

“They’ve been to Machu Picchu, they’ve been to Japan, to Australia — places Phillip had only dreamed of visiting,” she said.

The family has also started the Phillip Diaz’s Bright Star Foundation aimed at spreading kindness. They’ve created a scholarship for history-minded Downingtown High students in Phillip’s name. To help with their own healing, the family has also created worry stones to distribute to schools, mental health professionals, and institutions like Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to help provide comfort to those in need.

The Diaz family is still privately honoring Phillip in their own ways, too. This month, they went on that trip along the Danube that Phillip had planned. They brought their “See the World for Phillip” shirts along.

And when the people with Celestis tell them the time is right, later this year or early next, they will join the 200 other families in Cape Canaveral for a three-day tribute and one more gift of love: Sending their adventurous boy to the stars.

“We thought: ‘What better way for Phillip to see the world than to go where we couldn’t ever possibly take him?’” his mother said. “We didn’t think we could take him to space, but off he’s going. He’ll get to see everything that he could ever imagine.”