“There’s not a lot of atheists in aįoxhole. Good, another Catholic shuttle veteran, observed. There also are practical implications, as astronaut Mike Program who do trust that what we are doing is part of God’s eternal plan for In space as man reaches out to the universe. As Aldrin pointed out, God reveals himself Is there something about space travel that lends itself to In 2013, International Space Station astronaut Mike Hopkins,Ī Catholic, arranged with his pastor and diocese to carry a pyx with sixĬonsecrated hosts broken into four pieces, enough for him to receive weeklyĬommunion for the 24 weeks he was in space. Gutierrez, Thomas Jones and Kevin Chilton, an extraordinary minister of holyĬommunion, celebrated a Communion service on the space shuttle in 1994, 125 According to Catholic News Service, astronauts Sid Irwin was exploring the rough terrain of the lunar surface when he radioed Earth that he was reminded of one of his favorite Scripture passages: “I’ll look unto the hills from whence cometh my help” ( Ps 121).Īs for whether Jesus in the Eucharist has ever made it into During the Apollo 15 mission two years later, astronaut James B. The tradition of religious observances in space has continued. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit for you can do nothing without me’” ( Jn 15:5). I read: ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. I sensed especially strongly my unity with our church back home, and with the church everywhere. Pastor to take bread and wine with him to space and give himself Communion.ĭuring a radio blackout, Aldrin writes, “Just before I partook of the (Communion) elements, I read the words which I had chosen to indicate our trust that as man probes into space we are in fact acting in Christ. Was an elder in his Presbyterian Church and had received permission from his Listening in, wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment theĮvents of the past few hours and to give thanks in his own individual way.”įor Aldrin, that meant observing the Lord’s Supper. Undaunted, Aldrin took advantage of a few moments before heĪnd Neil Armstrong left the lunar module to step onto the moon. Wearing their faith on their spacesuit and they discouraged Aldrin from readingįrom Scripture while he was on the moon’s surface. NASA told the astronauts to tone it down when it came to The case was rejected by the courts,īut it had its impact. That reading from space prompted a lawsuit against NASA by They then took turns reading from the Book of Genesis,īeginning with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” andĬoncluding with “and God saw that it was good.”īorman then closed: “Good night, good luck, a MerryĬhristmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth.” In the background is Apollo Boilerplate 1102, which was used in the training exercise. Armstrong, commander and Michael Collins, command module pilot. Pictured are astronauts Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, lunar module pilot Neil A. The prime crew of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission relaxes on the deck of the NASA Motor Vessel Retriever prior to participating in a water raining exercise in the Gulf of Mexico May 24, 1969. People on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you.” They ended the broadcast with Anders saying, “For all the Showing pictures of the Earth and the moon as seen from their spacecraft. Much, but that’s largely because NASA started clamping down on publicĮxpressions of faith after the famous Christmas Eve Bible reading of Apollo 8,Īs astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William AndersĮntered into lunar orbit on Dec. The astronauts didn’t talk publicly about their faith very According to NASA, 23 were Protestant and sixĬatholic, with a high proportion of them serving as church leaders in their Inįact, the 29 astronauts who visited the moon during the Apollo program were a It turns out Aldrin’s religious faith is not an anomaly. During the broadcast, the second man to set foot on the moon’s surface read Psalms 8:3-4: “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou has ordained What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the Son of Man, that thou visitest him?” It seems that while returning from the historic first landing on the moon 50 years ago, astronaut Buzz Aldrin took part in a TV broadcast the night before splashing down. I didn’t realize there was a moon-landing Bible verse until my pastor mentioned it a few weeks ago. flag during an Apollo 11 extra-vehicular activity on the lunar surface July 20, 1969. Astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed U.S.
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