Spirituality and Spaceflight

Abstract

While the advent of space flight is relatively new, humankind has always had a fascination with the heavens. Ancient religions across numerous civilizations had spiritual and/or religious beliefs as to what lay in the heavens, or what is now referred to as outer space. Humans constantly searched for answers among the stars and believed space to be a place of the Gods. Though religious institutions, such as the Catholic Church, were often at odds with scientific discoveries, the astronomers did not let that dampen their spirits. This overlap between spirituality and space science continued right into the dawn of achievable space flight technology. Important engineers such as Werner von Braun were driven by faith and their belief it was humankind’s destiny to unravel the mysteries of the heavens. Almost all of the NASA astronauts and engineers during the Gemini and Apollo programs held strong spiritual beliefs. And beyond that, many more recent astronauts have described a transformative experience during their time in space, something that several prominent psychologists have begun to explore. With the recent beginning of humankind’s next manned moon mission, Artemis, well underway, it is time to examine the very obvious and powerful connection that exists in humans between spirituality and spaceflight. This paper will examine exactly this, with a slant towards NASA and the West and how spirituality and space will continue to interact into the foreseeable future.