On Friday, June 15th, 2018, the ashes of the remarkable cosmologist and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking were interred in Westminster Abbey, alongside the graves of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Hawking died on March 14th, 2018, more than fifty-five years after doctors gave him just three years to live.

During the service, the European Space Agency paid tribute to Hawking by transmitting into space his voice, accompanied by orchestration by the Greek composer Vangelis. With much of his life’s work having involved the exploration of the properties of black holes, the ESA chose to send Professor Hawking’s final message into space, in the direction of the nearest known black hole.