NASA Astronaut Victor Glover had a faith-filled message on his mind as Artemis II approached the far side of the moon and prepared to lose contact with Earth on Monday.
Speaking from aboard Orion at the mission’s most dramatic point yet, Glover skipped the usual astronaut awe-speak and went somewhere more personal: straight to Christ’s command to love God and love your neighbor.
“As we get close to the nearest point to the moon and farthest point from Earth, as we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth, and that’s love,” Glover said before the communications blackout.
“Christ said, in response to what was the greatest command, that it was to love God with all that you are,” Glover said. “And he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it, and that is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
This wasn’t Glover’s first time preaching from deep space. On Easter Sunday, he reflected on Earth as a “beautiful oasis” created by God for humanity and urged people to see themselves as “one people” sharing the same fragile home.
Artemis II launched April 1 as NASA’s first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years, and this week its crew became the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth. The spacecraft was in the middle of a historic lunar flyby, nearing the moon’s far side and a roughly 40-minute communications blackout, and Glover used the moment not to talk about engineering or exploration but to point back to one of Christianity’s most basic teachings.
“As we prepare to go out of radio communication, we feel your love from Earth,” he said. “And to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the moon.”
