As their command module floated above the lunar surface, the astronauts beamed back images of the moon and Earth and took turns reading from the book of Genesis, closing with a wish for everyone "on the good Earth."
Astronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman, the first humans to travel to the Moon, recited verses 1 through 10 of the Genesis creation narrative from the King James Bible. Anders read verses 1–4, Lovell verses 5–8, and Borman read verses 9 and 10.
John Glenn, who died Thursday at age 95, was an American hero: a trailblazer in science and a devoted public servant on Earth as well as in the heavens.
Apollo 8, which launched on December 21, 1968, was the first mission to take humans to the Moon and back. While the crew did not land on the Moon's surface, the flight was an important prelude to a lunar landing, testing the flight trajectory and operations getting there and back.
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 church leaders in their congregations.
Religion in space: A history
In 2007, Malaysian astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor became the first practicing Muslim to stay on the International Space Station, and the Islamic National Fatwa Council of Malaysia issued special guidelines specifically to guide his and other future Muslim astronauts' practices.
Astronauts and cosmonauts, and spaceflight participants have observed their religions while in space; sometimes publicly, sometimes privately. Religious adherence in outer space poses unique challenges and opportunities for practitioners.
Apollo 13 was NASA's third moon-landing mission, but the astronauts never made it to the lunar surface. During the mission's dramatic series of events, an oxygen tank explosion almost 56 hours into the flight forced the crew to abandon all thoughts of reaching the moon.
And, for all the people back on earth, the crew of Apollo 8 have 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.
Apollo 11 was the first mission to land humans on the Moon. It fulfilled a 1961 goal set by President John F. Kennedy to send American astronauts to the surface and return them safely to Earth before the end of the decade.
Nicknamed the "Hand of God," this object is called a pulsar wind nebula.
Apollos (Greek: Ἀπολλώς) was a 1st-century Alexandrian Jewish Christian mentioned several times in the New Testament. A contemporary and colleague of Paul the Apostle, he played an important role in the early development of the churches of Ephesus and Corinth.
Heaven is a place of peace, love, community, and worship, where God is surrounded by a heavenly court and other heavenly beings. Biblical authors imagined the earth as a flat place with Sheol below (the realm of the dead) and a dome over the earth that separates it from the heavens or sky above.
Despite the failed efforts of getting the bibles to the moon on the Apollo 12 and 13 missions, the league's dreams were finally realized when Apollo 14 brought 300 bibles to the moon, including the 100 carried on the surface by Mitchell.
Achieving a top speed of 24,593 m.p.h., Apollo 8 broke existing manned speed records, as well as topped the existing distance record that humans had traveled away from Earth. Also for the first time, astronauts communicated via radio and television from lunar distance to Earth.
From their orbital altitude of 69 statute miles, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders were able to describe the surface of the moon in detail. "The back side [of the moon] looks like a sand pile my kids have played in for some time. It's all beat up, no definition, just a lot of bumps and holes."
Margaret Hamilton's Apollo Code
One of the many contributors to this effort was Margaret Hamilton, a computer scientist who led the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which in 1961 contracted with NASA to develop the Apollo program's guidance system.
Christmas Angels: Announcing the News to the Shepherds
And that angel has a message in Luke 2:10-12 (NIV): “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
Christmas Eve, 1968. As one of the most turbulent, tragic years in American history drew to a close, millions around the world were watching and listening as the Apollo 8 astronauts - Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders - became the first humans to orbit another world.
Released in 1995, the film tells the true story of the Apollo 13 mission that nearly ended in disaster. In April 1970, Apollo 13 was intended to be the third lunar landing mission, but an explosion occurred en route to the moon, crippling the spaceship and preventing the astronauts from reaching the moon.
Due to a shallower re-entry path, Apollo 13's blackout was calculated to last about 4.5 minutes. Flight director Gene Kranz's logs show that it took about 6 minutes to re-establish contact with Apollo 13. Telemetry was usually the first signal received after the blackout.
pantheism, the doctrine that the universe conceived of as a whole is God and, conversely, that there is no God but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are manifested in the existing universe.
He did not believe in a personal God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings, a view which he described as naïve. He clarified however that, "I am not an atheist", preferring to call himself an agnostic, or a "religious nonbeliever."
According to the poll, just over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power.