New Frontiers of Space & Faith

How do you pray in space?

Space travel creates several challenges for Muslims due to some common Islamic practices that are tied to life on earth. For example, while praying, one must face Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Traditionally, Muslims on Earth determine the qibla (the direction of Mecca) using terrestrial landmarks or compasses. The time of prayers - and of Ramadan fasts - are determined by the position of the sun in the sky. Even the act of prayer requires the devout to assume particular bodily positions - kneeling, bowing, standing.

The international Space Station orbits earth every 90 minutes - how can you locate Mecca under those conditions? How do you determine prayer times and fasting periods marked by dawn and dusk when day cycles into night sixteen times a day? And how can you stand or kneel to pray in a low gravity environment?

These became important questions for Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor in 2007, when he became the first Muslim to observe Ramadan in space. Malaysia's space agency, Angkasa, brought scientists and scholars together to grapple with these issues. Their advice was to do one’s best. Shukor was to try to determine the qibla (direction of Mecca) as he would on earth - but if this was not possible, then directing prayer towards earth would suffice. He should work out the correct times of prayer by using the local earth time at the place of launch. 

Since being on the Space Station meant being in constant motion, and since Ramadan fasts are optional while travelling, he could choose whether to participate. Shukor chose to keep them, and to celebrate Eid al-Fitr aboard the station - the first time an Islamic festival is known to have been celebrated in outer space - and took traditional Malaysian satay and cookies to share with the rest of the crew as he marked the breaking of the fast.

Islam has no central organising authority, so the guidance from the Malaysian council was not binding, and other Muslims may choose to solve the problems differently. But the question of how to practise faith in space goes back to the beginning of spaceflight.

Christmas Eve in Space

During the Apollo 8 mission, NASA had planned for the crew to make a live broadcast to the earth’s population. They estimated that around a billion people would probably tune in, and asked the crew to “say something appropriate”. Mission commander Frank Borman had therefore decided to begin ‘in the beginning’.

At 9:30pm US time on Christmas Eve 1968, the crew went live to the world. They described what they could see out of their window – the scene that we now know as the “Earthrise” photograph.

The crew then took it in turns to read the first 10 verses of Genesis, typed up on fireproof paper and included in the mission flight plan. Around a quarter of the global population listened to the live broadcast, and heard Commander Frank Borman signing off “good night, good luck, Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you.”

One giant leap of faith

Seven months later, the Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon. But while most people remember Neil Armstrong’s awed recognition that he was taking “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, fewer people know that Buzz Aldrin wanted to make that step a leap of faith.

Aldrin, a Presbyterian church elder, wanted to celebrate communion on the moon. In the lunar module, he carefully poured out the wine into the chalice lent by his church, noticing that, “in the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup”.

His scripture reading was heard only by Mission Control, not a global audience, and his words were handwritten on a piece of card, rather than being part of the flight plan. 

The Apollo 8 broadcast had caused some controversy – specifically, a lawsuit about whether it violated the US constitutional boundaries between church and state. NASA was becoming more cautious – but astronauts continued to take faith to space.

Bibles in Space

Ed White, the first American to walk in space, had dreamed about taking a Bible to the moon. After his death in the Apollo 1 crew capsule fire, the NASA scientist and chaplain John Stout founded the Apollo Prayer League to support this aim. 

The League initially commissioned a micro-film print of the King James Bible, no bigger than a postage stamp. This flew on Apollo 12 but was accidentally left in the command module. Apollo 13 also took copies, but famously that mission never made it to the moon. 

Astronaut Edgar Mitchell finally got the microfilmed Bible to the lunar surface on Apollo 14, but no copies were left behind. As with Aldrin’s communion, NASA was wary of stirring up any further legal challenge from activists keen to maintain the separation between church and state.

A Bible finally found a permanent home in space with Apollo 15, when Commander David Scott – after a moment of silence – left one on the Lunar Rover’s control panel. It can clearly be seen in NASA images.

In the years since, other astronauts have practised faith in space. In 1994, three Catholic astronauts took Holy Communion on board Space Shuttle Endeavour. The diary of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, recovered after his death in the 2003 shuttle disaster, shows that he planned to mark Shabbat in space, calculating when it would begin in Columbia. In 2017, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov took a relic of an Orthodox saint to space. Increasingly, space programmes have focused on sending ‘ordinary’ people to space, opening up more room for expressions of personal faith.

To Mars!

In the 21st Century, national space agencies are now looking towards Mars. Since the length of day on Mars is almost the same as that on Earth, colonisation here poses fewer challenges for Muslims or Christians in terms of the organisation of worship than does the ISS or the Moon. In fact, the United Arab Emirates Space programme has already successfully landed the ‘Hope’ spacecraft on the Martian surface in 2020/21.  

It seems certain that religion will continue to journey with humans as they go further into space, even if we don’t yet know the exact roles it may play. The human experience of space makes it clear that for humans who “boldly go” beyond the confines of earth, faith is an important source of strength.