William Gibson
"Broken up and vanished. In the sky over Nacogdoches County. And I’m sad all the way back to the little boy with his stiff black book and his Bonestell rockets."

Neil Gainman
"It started out like a streak of orange flame, and then, as it rose, it burned bluer and brighter than anything I'd ever seen -- the nursery rhyme line "like a diamond in the sky" suddenly had meaning, a huge, blazing, blue-white diamond of flame.."

And this I rememberd from a wonderful collection of Japanese Death Poems. Maybe, maybe a fitting memorial can be found.
Tsumimono ya
nakute jodo e
tsuki no fune

(Cargoless,
bound heavenward,
ship of the moon)
-Dohaku

And of course:
Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night
-Pink Floyd, Learning To Fly