On Sunday, July 20, 1969, the (LM) Lunar Module of the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed in the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon’s surface.
The (LM) Lunar Module had been nicknamed by the astronauts “The Eagle.” Flight commander Neil Armstrong radioed to NASA the famous words: “Houston. Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
As Armstrong first set foot on the lunar surface, he uttered the most recited words of the mission: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
What is less entirely known is that his flight companion, Buzz Aldrin, was a devoted Presbyterian.
Before exiting the lunar module (LM) to explore the lunar surface, Aldrin had taken with him a communion kit from his church and took communion.
Almost Fifty-one years ago, American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, a devoted Christian, made history by landing on the lunar surface.
And then the first thing he did was give thanks to God. And on Apollo 8, the first human-crewed mission to the Moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968.
This evening, the NASA astronauts made a live television broadcast that finished with the Apollo crew taking turns reading from the holy book of Genesis, including the words;
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth. 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 that it was good.
Frank then continued, “And from the crew of Apollo VIII, we close with saying good night and good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all to all of you on the good Earth.'”
Seven months later, on July 20, 1969, almost 51 years ago, Buzz Aldrin took communion in the Apollo 11 spacecraft that had arrived on the lunar surface shortly before Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon.
Communion
Buzz’s non-religious messages were broadcast to the world; “I would like to request a few moments of silence. I want to invite each person who is listening in. Wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his way.”
Aldrin taking communion, though, was not broadcast to the world, much of which he knew was not Christian.
He took the wine and bread privately and recited scripture from John 15:5, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.
And those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me, you can do nothing.”
The Christian sacrament of communion
So, the first foods ever eaten or poured on the Moon were the Christian sacrament of communion.
In his memoir, Aldrin later said, ” I poured the wine into the chalice that our church had given to me.
In the Moon’s one-sixth gravity, the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup,” he later wrote.
In his 2010 autobiography, he wrote that he’d come to wonder if he’d done the right thing by celebrating a Christian ritual in space.
“We had come to space in the name of all mankind ~ be they Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, agnostics, or atheists, but at the time.
I could not think of no better way to acknowledge the Apollo 11 experience than by giving thanks to God.”
The 52nd anniversary that is soon coming up of the moon landing is far more than a phantasmagoric orgy of music, lights, fireworks, and film footage.
It is also, for numerous, a profoundly spiritual manifestation of ancient scripture, as it was for Buzz Aldrin.
For others, it is a fulfillment of the statements from adults and children the world over who stare into a clear night sky and say, “Oh, my God!”