The pilot of NASA’s historic return to the moon is a Christian who once took a Bible and communion cups to the International Space Station.
Victor Glover is one of four astronauts that NASA announced on Monday would comprise the Artemis II crew that will travel to the moon and back on a 10-day mission – the world’s first mission to the moon since the Apollo program ended some five decades ago. It is scheduled to be launched in August 2024. The Artemis II crew, like the Apollo 8 crew of 1968, will circle the moon and return to Earth, paving the way for future missions.
Glover served as flight engineer on the International Space Station for Expedition 64. It was on that mission that he packed a Bible and communion cups and watched virtual services of his church back home.
Glover was aboard the space station for 168 days.
He spoke last year at Abell Street Church of Christ in Wharton, Texas.
“I was able to worship” in space,” Glover told the Texas congregation. “... I was able to take communion every week I was in space.”
NASA, he said, “supported me and my family's desire to continue to worship and to continue our faith walk even while I was off the planet.”
“That was really important to me,” Glover said.
He spoke from 2 Peter 1, where the apostle Peter tells the church to “add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”
“I think the world needs all of those things right now,” Glover told the church, referencing the chapter. “The world needs all of those. We need all of those right now.”
He encouraged Christians to continue growing in their faith.
“No matter how long we've been in this, whether you're a preacher, an elder or a deacon, brand new in your faith walk, we all need to be growing,” Glover said.
Jesus, he said, is the answer to the world’s problems.
“We have a sin nature and we need Jesus,” he said. “Jesus is that bridge that spans sin and gives us a chance of going to heaven.”
Glover said his crew aboard the International Space Station was composed of people of all beliefs – something he enjoyed. He and his crewmates sat in the window and “looked at the earth and had philosophical discussions about God” and “everything under the sun,” he said.
“We had a Catholic up there, a Christian, a few non-believers and a Buddhist,” he said. “And I tell you what – all of us wanted to fellowship in the evening [after] being alone and working hard all day long. And that human desire to be together, to be with our brothers and sisters, is a thing that I think about all the time.”
Related:
NASA Astronaut Quotes Psalm 30 after Watching Sunrise: ‘Joy Cometh in the Morning’
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Carmen Mandato/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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