For better or worse, the moon is officially open for business.
On Monday, January 8, United Launch Alliance’s shiny new Vulcan Centaur rocket will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander and Celestis and Elysium memorial payloads containing human remains and DNA.
Two commemoration companies, Elysium Space and Celestis, will potentially deliver a symbolic portion of the remains to the lunar surface as one of their services; Celestis’ valuable cargo of crema and DNA will embark the Tranquility mission, the company’s second lunar flight.
A second Celestis payload will fly on the Centaur upper stage of the Vulcan rocket, flying beyond the Earth-moon system into deep space, creating the furthest human presence among the stars. Celestis Enterprise Flight will include the cremated remains and/or DNA material of numerous “Star Trek” icons, including Nichelle Nichols, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, series creator Gene Roddenberry and his wife, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, and visual effects for “2001: A Space Odyssey.” It includes the DNA of his guru Douglas Trumbull, as well as current ULA CEO Tory Bruno, his wife Rebecca, several former presidents of the United States, and many more.
But not everyone is completely happy with the upcoming flight. President of the Navajo Nation, Arizona Public Radio reported Dec. 28 Buu Nygrenis unhappy with the idea of human remains being left on the Moon and is formally requesting that NASA delay this January launch because of the space agency’s promise to advise them before allowing future memorial flights.
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Nygren expressed his thoughts on the subject in a letter he wrote to NASA and the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) on December 21. “It is very important to emphasize that the Moon has a sacred status in many Native cultures, including our own,” Nygren wrote. “We regard it as part of our spiritual heritage, an object of respect and reverence. Leaving human remains and other materials on the Moon that would be perceived as waste anywhere else is tantamount to desecrating the sacred space.”
Nygren added that the Navajo Nation believes both NASA and USDOT should consult with them before authorizing a company to transport human remains to the moon.
But despite strong objections from the Navajo Nation, this is not technically a NASA-led mission. The mission will be the first launch of Vulcan Centaur and the first under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which aims to leverage private companies to help place agency-led science payloads on the lunar surface.
The mission is actually a private commercial launch made possible by ULA and Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology through CLPS, and NASA has no authority over exactly what additional payloads are included.
According to Nygren, this is “an ongoing concern that dates back to the late 1990s, when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration sent out the Moon Prospector and returned the Moon’s remains.” [geologist] Eugene Shoemaker to the moon. At the time, Navajo Nation President Albert Hale expressed our objections to this action. In response, NASA issued a formal apology and promised to consult with tribes before authorizing further missions that would return human remains to the moon.”
In this particular example, the Commercial Space Office, which operates under the U.S. Department of Transportation, was likely negligent in not consulting with the tribes before approving the launch’s official payload certification.
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Nygren told the parties that NASA had previously committed to keeping the Navajo Nation informed of the commemorative flights and that the Biden administration had promised to consult on tribal concerns of this nature, as outlined in the Jan. 1 Memorandum of Understanding on Tribal Consultation and Strengthening Nation-to-Nation Relations. reminded. 26, 2021.
“This memorandum strengthened the commitment to Executive Order 13175 of November 6, 2000,” Nygren explained. “In addition, the Memorandum of Understanding on Interagency Coordination and Cooperation for the Protection of Indigenous Sacred Sites that you and several other members of the Administration signed in November 2021 further underscores the need for such consultations.”
At a pre-launch science briefing on Thursday, Jan. 4, NASA representatives addressed the controversy surrounding payloads containing human remains included in the mission. Private companies that launch payloads as part of the program, however, “don’t have to clean those payloads” before launch, said Chris Culbert, CLPS program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “So these are really business missions and it’s up to them to sell what they sell,” Culbert added. “We don’t have the framework to tell them what they can and can’t fly.”
NASA representatives added that an interagency group within the U.S. government had met to discuss the Navajo Nation’s objections.
Celestis does not find these objections convincing.
Celestis CEO and co-founder Charles Chafer said, “The regulatory process for approving space missions does not consider compliance with the tenets of any religion in the process, for obvious reasons. No religion can or should determine whether a space mission is approved.” said. in a statement emailed to Space.com.
“No one person and no religion owns the Moon, and it is quite possible that no mission will ever be approved, given the beliefs of the many religions around the world,” Chafer added. “Simply put, we do not and have never allowed religious beliefs to guide humanity’s space efforts; there is and should not be a religious test.”
Correction: This story was updated at 6:21 PM ET to reflect that Celestis has a load of cream and DNA on its way to the moon on the Peregrine lunar lander, in addition to its payload from the Vulcan Centaur’s first flight. Updated again at 8:50 PM ET to include a statement from Celestis’ Charles Chafer.