From scripture in orbit to Easter messages from space, the Christian faith was positively shared during NASA’s historic mission
On 1 April, NASA launched the first crewed mission of its Artemis programme, sending four astronauts further from earth than any humans in history. But alongside the scientific milestones, the journey was marked by moments of faith.
Over nine days, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen travelled 252,756 miles. The mission was part of a vision to establish a human presence on the moon and eventually Mars.
Where his colleagues took messages and memorabilia from loved ones, pilot Glover took a Bible into space. Speaking ahead of the launch, he said: “We need Jesus – whether here on earth or orbiting the moon.”
The thread of faith continued during the flight. On the sixth day, the crew awoke to ‘Good morning’, a Christian song by TobyMac and Mandisa, the chorus of which declares: “You give me strength / You give me just what I need / And I can feel the hope that’s rising in me / It’s a good morning.”
In an Easter video message to earth, Koch shared that the day was marked with a cabin egg hunt. Hansen wished viewers a happy Easter, saying: “No matter your faith or religion. For me, the teachings of Jesus were always a very simple truth of love.”
As the spacecraft reached its furthest point, Glover reminded listeners of Christ’s call “to love God with all you are” and to “love your neighbour as yourself”.
Returning to earth, Reid Wiseman said that despite not being “a religious person”, there was “no other avenue for me to explain” what he experienced in space. “So I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship to just come visit us for a minute. And when that man walked in, I’d never met him before in my life, but I saw the cross on his collar, and I just I broke down in tears. It’s very hard to fully grasp what we just went through.”
Where matters of faith and science are usually framed as being in tension, this scientific exploration into space wove both together throughout the journey.
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