Online classified service Craigslist announced it will transmit its postings into outerspace. Craigslist made the announcement after CEO Jim Buckmaster won an auction on eBay for the first private communication to be transmitted into deep space by Deep Space Communications Network, of Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The transmission is currently scheduled for May 15, 2005. Deep Space Communications Network will transmit the postings, along with a personal video message from Craig, and a clip from the documentary "24 Hours on craigslist" light years into space, "for the benefit and edification of potential future craigslist community members in the great beyond."

Craigslist is one-quarter owned by eBay and currently handles 5 million postings each month, from 8 million users, in 99 cities and 19 countries.

The tongue-in-cheek press release announcing the launch of Cragislist postings into outerspace quoted Buckmaster saying, "We checked into doing a direct mailing but the postage rates are just out of this world, and getting a carrier to commit to delivery verification was impossible."

And Craigslist founder Craig Newmark posted on his blog that the ads beamed into space are not retrievable (http://www.cnewmark.com/archives/000358.html).