About 10 miles from the Johnson Space Center, there is a church in the Houston area. During their Wednesday Bible study and Sunday night worship service, the church takes a moment to pray for two church members who are unable to attend.
In fact, there is no way on Earth for NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Tracy Dyson to show up at Providence Baptist Church. They are in space, orbiting the planet. More specifically, these two members are working together on the International Space Station.
Like many astronauts before them, they took their faith with them when they went into space.
“God uses all of us in very beautiful ways, and I think I get the most joy out of what I do when I think about it that way,” Dyson said, talking about her work on the “Bible Project” podcast ahead of her launch in March on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Dyson’s six-month mission doesn’t end until September, but Wilmore and fellow NASA test pilot Suni Williams were supposed to be back weeks ago. They’re staying longer than expected after problems with a booster and helium leak during Boeing’s first crew flight for the Starliner capsule. Wilmore and Williams have said they’re confident the capsule will bring them home safely; engineers are still poring over Starliner test data.
There is no date yet for the return, which means the congregation’s worries are at rest for now since they are safely aboard the space station, said Tommy Dahn, a pastor at the Pasadena, Texas, church where Dyson is a new member and Wilmore is a longtime elder.
It is the days of departure and return that increase their fears – and prayers.
“We will certainly remain vigilant as we find out when that is going to happen,” said Dahn, who has been in close contact with Wilmore and his wife during the final mission.
Wilmore paused before boarding the Starliner on each launch attempt, and huddled in prayer with engineers and Williams. He recognized the risks of spaceflight — especially on a test flight like his.
“Our families have been involved in this from the beginning. … As far as preparation, they are prepared. We trust in the sovereign God. Whatever the plan is, we are ready for it, whatever that may be,” he told reporters before the flight.
Wilmore’s belief that God is in control brings his family great peace, his wife, Deanna Wilmore, said in a text message. He is content on the space station, not worried or brooding, she said.
“We’re not saying that this means nothing bad will happen or that the Starliner will bring Barry home safely, but whatever the Lord does, it will be for our good and for His glory,” even if they don’t fully understand it, she said.
The American space program has achieved astonishing achievements, but also devastating tragedies.
Former NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins knew space exploration was high risk, but he didn’t realize the full extent of it until he got his first assignment. A life insurance company brought that up before his Soyuz rocket launch in September 2013, said Hopkins, who recalled being told they didn’t insure astronauts.
Hopkins realized he wasn’t ready spiritually. Between workouts, he began converting to Catholicism, a faith he had been immersed in since dating his Catholic wife, but he insisted he would never join.
“It’s the idea of being an astronaut and recognizing the risks that we take,” he said. “It felt like something was missing for me.”
When he first received communion, he was overcome with a clarity and peace that he wanted to take with him into space. With the help of his priests, Hopkins was allowed to carry a pyx of consecrated hosts. He administered communion to himself weekly and on long, intense spacewalks.
“It just set the tone for the day,” he said. “Then you just go through the step-by-step process of doing the spacewalk, but do it knowing that Christ is with me.”
Others have taken communion in space, including Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin after he landed on the moon with Neil Armstrong in 1969.
The Rev. Wencil Pavlovsky, pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in the Houston area, helped former astronaut Mark Vande Hei bring communion into orbit. Vande Hei was aboard the space station in 2017 when Pope Francis called for the station.
Pavlovsky says serving astronauts is not much different than supporting others: “What I find unique and what I really, really appreciate is that they have a completely different perspective, because they can look back on us the way God does.”
In this connection, there is a phenomenon that philosopher Frank White calls the Overview Effect, in which a person’s worldview changes after looking at Earth from space.
Thirty-six parishioners at St. Paul the Apostle have been astronauts, Pavlovsky said. The church was founded in the 1960s to serve the growing space community and embraces its history, including its stained-glass windows designed based on Hubble Telescope images and its curated collection of space memorabilia.
According to NASA, it’s unknown how many people have practiced their faith in space, as some keep it private. However, flight-certified religious items are allowed. In 2023, astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli celebrated Hanukkah on the space station, sharing a video featuring a menorah, a spinning dreidel and her view of Earth.
Rabbi Shaul Osadchey of Houston encouraged a member of his congregation and then-astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman to take the first Torah into space during his last shuttle mission in 1996. Osadchey found a miniature scroll, and he and about 40 members of the synagogue attended the launch in Florida.
“We take our culture and our backgrounds with us wherever we go,” Osadchey said, noting that Hoffman read from the Torah on Shabbat, specifically the beginning of Genesis. “Jeff brought Jewish tradition into a new realm — a new world that is being conquered by people.”
The three astronauts aboard Apollo 8 broadcast their reading from Genesis on Christmas Eve as they flew around the moon, beginning, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
NASA says it helps observant astronauts stay connected to their faith community. Thanks to Dyson and Wilmore, their Southern Baptist congregation, which numbers about 250 on any given Sunday, has had unique opportunities.
Despite the distance, women at the church arranged a kind of care package — encouraging notes — for Dyson, Dahn said.
“Barry, he’s almost preaching to us,” he said, noting how Wilmore makes encouraging phone calls to congregants while he’s in the room.
After Wilmore arrived at the space station in early June, he and Dyson appeared live via video at a Providence Baptist Sunday service and gave the congregation a tour of the station, Dahn said. Wilmore gave a lesson before he and others aboard the space station led the congregation in singing “Amazing Grace.”
“It’s pretty exciting,” Dahn said, adding that thoughts of God come easily as the astronauts view Earth through the space station window. Like other theologically conservative Christians, he believes God is the creator of the universe as depicted in the Bible, not the Big Bang or other theories.
“It’s affirming. I don’t want to be rude, but it does make us laugh at the ‘Flat Earthers,'” he said.
Wilmore uses his experience in space to help people better understand their Christian beliefs, Dahn said, citing his speaking engagements for the Answers in Genesis organization, which runs the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter, evangelical attractions in Kentucky.
Few others can do what Dyson and Wilmore do, though they probably won’t say so, said Corey Johnson, another Providence Baptist pastor. He recalls how Wilmore organized a group to build a fence at his home, and how Dyson happily read a book to his sons during a visit.
“These are individuals with unique talents,” he said, but “they are more than just their day job.”
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