Not content with polluting the Boca Chica Beach on South Texas’s Gulf shore — a sacred site, according to certain ancient beliefs — Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now seeking to wreak havoc on another site considered holy to indigenous peoples in Hawaii.
As The Guardian reports, the Federal Aviation Administration has quietly granted SpaceX permission to detonate rockets above the waters surrounding Mokumanamana, a remote and uninhabited island located 400 miles from Honolulu that holds deep religious significance to native Hawaiians.
William Aila, the former chair of Hawaii’s land and natural resources department who now runs the island state’s housing department, told The Guardian that in Native Hawaiian spirituality, Mokumanamana sits at the boundary between “‘pō,’ the darkness, and ‘au,’ the light.” When a Native Hawaiian dies, their soul travels up near Mokumanamana, and after meeting their ancestors there, they potentially get to advance into the great beyond with them in the dark waters west of the island.
Despite that island’s spiritual importance, the FAA gave Musk and SpaceX permission to expand its so-called “splashdown area” — the wide swath of water where it’s allowed to litter exploded rocket parts — into the Pacific, making its marine junkyard whopping 75 times larger.
Along with allowing Musk to rain schrapnel down near Mokumanamana, the FAA also granted SpaceX the ability to do so around Hawaii’s eight main islands — which are populated with American citizens who may end up having their houses or property hit by debris — and portions of the Papahānaumokuākea marine national monument, a UNESCO world heritage site that’s home to thousands of diverse species of animal and plant life.
When Hawaii-dwelling activist and former physicist Lynda Williams learned of Musk’s plans — which she claims were rammed through without any consultation with local officials — she urged her fellow Hawaii residents to speak out.
During a public comment period held just ahead of president Donald Trump’s inauguration, Williams spoke first and with vitriol.
“Earth is not a sacrifice zone for Elon Musk’s ego trip to Mars,” the activist said during the meeting, per The Guardian. She called the billionaire’s Mars colonization plan a “whole Trojan-Horse bullshit lie,” and said she wanted to “shred” that talking point.
Though lots of other concerned citizens from both Texas and Hawaii spoke out about the severe environmental impacts SpaceX’s explosive launches will have on these holy and nominally protected waters — former president Joe Biden granted Papahānaumokuākea a sanctuary designation during his final days in office, which should have given it more legal cover — the FAA granted Musk his Pacific splashdown permission regardless.
“The government is doing a number of things trying to reduce the influence and impact of environmental laws,” decried Aila, who also used to chair Papahānaumokuākea’s advisory council. “Who does that benefit? It benefits Elon Musk. And that should be a huge ethical issue.”
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