309. Why Do Many Astronauts Fly Their Faith Out of This World?

“We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you. “‘In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.’” Episode sponsors The Star-Blessed by Angie Dickinson Realm Makers 2026 Conference & Expo Land of Giants by Laurie Christine Wisdom and Wonder Conference & Expo Mission update New at Lorehaven: new reviews, upcoming super search Subscribe free to get updates and join the Lorehaven Guild Plus the Lorehaven Authorship to help terraform Christian fantasy Stephen heads to Houston to hype space missions April 25 at Houston Christian University’s Wisdom & Wonder Conference The crew of Apollo 8 in 1968 (NASA) 1. Past astronauts paid tribute to Christianity Dec. 24, 1968: Apollo 8’s crew was the very first to orbit the Moon. These astronauts were Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman. And they read from Gen. 1:1-10 (in the King James Version). But the Judeo-Christian roots of NASA go even deeper. General ideas: this is a generation still shaped by World War II. Some call this “positive world,” when churches/faith were in vogue. So was the actual gospel, co-mingled with “cultural Christianity.” Rocket engineer Wernher von Braun was one confessing Christian. These men did not just affirm Jesus as Savior but God as Creator. “And God said, ‘Let the waters under the Heavens be gathered together into one place. And let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. And God called the dry land Earth. And the gathering together of the waters called he seas. And God saw that it was good.” And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you—all of you on the good Earth. Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman, Dec. 24, 1968 Many early astronauts publicly acknowledged Christ or religion. Among these were Captain Jim Lovell and Col. Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin, a Presbyterian, took a secret Communion on the Moon. During a pre-splashdown broadcast, he also read Psalm 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?” According to a 2019 Catholic Sun article: It turns out Aldrin’s religious faith is not an anomaly. In fact, the 29 astronauts who visited the moon during the Apollo program were a generally religious cohort. According to NASA, 23 were Protestant and six Catholic, with a high proportion of them serving as churc