Navajo objection to flying human ashes to the Moon received’t delay launch

Enlarge / The Moon units over sandstone formations on the Navajo Nation. (credit score: David McNew/Getty Photos)

Science devices aren’t the one issues hitching a journey to the Moon on a business lunar lander prepared for launch Monday. Two corporations specializing in “house burials” are sending cremated human stays to the Moon, and this does not sit nicely with the Navajo Nation.

The Navajo individuals, one of many nation’s largest Indigenous teams, maintain the Moon sacred, and placing human stays on the lunar floor quantities to desecration, in response to Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren.

“The sacredness of the Moon is deeply embedded within the spirituality and heritage of many Indigenous cultures, together with our personal,” Nygren stated in an announcement. “The location of human stays on the Moon is a profound desecration of this celestial physique revered by our individuals.”