Communion on the Moon: The Religious Experience in Space
The Atlantic’s Rebecca J. Rosen reports how “the secular, scientific work of space exploration cannot shake religion.” Rosen highlight how, before the launch of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft this past weekend, a Russian Orthodox priest blessed the rocket. Throughout the American space missions, many astronauts turned to prayer for safe travels, including Buzz Aldrin who “took communion in the minutes between when he and Neil Armstrong became the first humans on the moon’s surface.” “It’s hard to imagine atheists in foxholes; it is at least as hard to imagine them in space shuttles,” writes Rosen.