The remains or DNA of “Star Trek” stars, presidents, scientists and many others will be among the payload aboard the rocket that will also carry the first NASA lunar lander launched from the U.S. since 1972, the end of the Apollo program.
Some of those remains are headed for the moon, which drew objections from the Navajo Nation and prompted a White House meeting before federal officials decided to proceed regardless.
“We believe that both NASA and the USDOT should have engaged in consultation with us before agreeing to contract with a company that transports human remains to the Moon or authorizing a launch carrying such payloads,” Navajo Nation president Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren wrote in a letter to federal officials on Thursday. “The moon is revered, and it regulates life cycles, according to Navajo traditions and stories. To send something like that over there is sacrilege.”
The commercial rocket is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing and is a competitor of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. If the lunar craft manages to land — the pitfall potentials are, well, astronomical — it would be the first commercially developed vehicle to manage a soft moon landing, CNN reported.
Peregrine, the lander’s name, is a robotic craft that will be perched atop the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur Rocket and detach about an hour after launch, heading for the moon while the rocket itself stays on course for deep space.
The launch comes under the auspices of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which partners with U.S. companies to make commercial deliveries to the moon, The Hill explained. The liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida is scheduled for 2:18 a.m. Monday.
Part of the payload will include the “space memorial,” sending some remains and DNA to a final resting place somewhere beyond Mars and others to the moon itself. It will include some ashes and genetic samples from the late Gene Roddenberry, creator of the original “Star Trek,” as well as his late wife Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Chapel and a number of other roles in the series, and their still-living son, Rod Roddenberry, who is sending some of his DNA.
Other “Star Trek” luminaries to be memorialized in space include Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura; James Doohan, who was Chief Engineer Scotty; and DeForest Kelley, the ever-exasperated doctor nicknamed Bones. Canadian “Star Trek” fan Gloria Knowlan, who was 86 when she died 12 years ago, will accompany her U.S.S. Enterprise idols into space, as well.
But that’s not all. First President George Washington is donating DNA via hair samples, as are John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Separately, Peregrine will carry 20 cargo payloads, including five from NASA for studying the earth’s sole selenological satellite. Governments, companies and universities will also send payloads, totaling 20 in all, according to The Hill.
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