White House scrambles as Navajo Nation protests transport of George Washington, JFK and other remains to ‘sacred’ moon

A political Death Star could keep the remains of George Washington, John F. Kennedy, and a constellation of “Star Trek” idols earthbound — as moonstruck Native Americans claim the planet’s lunar companion as their own sacred site.

The Biden administration scrambled to soothe angry members of the Navajo Nation with a hastily called White House meeting Friday, CNN reported, just days before the scheduled Monday launch of an uncrewed commercial rocket carrying a payload of cremated human remains and locks of presidential hair.

“The moon holds a sacred place in Navajo cosmology,” said Navajo president Buu Nygren.

“The suggestion of transforming it into a resting place for human remains is deeply disturbing and unacceptable to our people.”

“We’re turning the moon into a graveyard and we’re turning it into a waste site,” said Justin Ahasteen of the Navajos’ Washington office.

The two-stage Vulcan Centaur rocket has been packed with the remains of 333 people, including the late “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry, his wife, recurring cast member Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, several fellow USS Enterprise actors, and others whose families paid for the privilege.

Hair samples from three US presidents — Washington, JFK, and Dwight D. Eisenhower — are also aboard, courtesy of Celestis, a privately owned space burial company.

“We reject the assertion that our memorial spaceflight mission desecrates the moon,” said Celestis CEO Charles Chafer.

“Our memorial on the moon is handled with care and reverence … No one, and no religion, owns the moon.”

A 6-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide Peregrine Lunar Lander will drop 62 sets of human remains, packed separately in titanium capsules, on the moon’s surface.

The rest will continue into deep space to orbit around the sun.

But the native objections could short-circuit the mission, which has already been beset by delays.