Blue Origin Vs. SpaceX NASA Rescue: Talking About God When Returning From Orbit

There’s something about going to space that inevitably turns one’s mind to the divine. What we do when our thoughts are so directed is quite another question.

In the early days of the Space Race, a Russian cosmonaut supposedly claimed to have ‘looked and looked, but did not see God’. Or at least, that’s what Kruschev claimed he said in official Soviet anti-faith propoganda. Buzz Aldrin, on the other hand, took communion while on the moon.

That’s quite a wide gap in belief, to be sure. But somehow, the topic of God couldn’t help but come up.

The last two space stories have a similar dichotomy, contrasting the kind of cheesy 11-minute girl power tourist trip to (just barely) the edge of space to the Gilligan’s Island overstay of an 8 day space flight that ended nine months later.

It just so happens that we’ve got statements from both flights that shine a window into just how different American views can be.

First up, is Katy Perry. She almost deserves an award for achieving the impossible: finding a way to make something as amazing as space flight ‘cringe’.

BREAKING: Katy Perry said she felt deeply connected to the "strong divine feminine" after her spaceflight alongside an all-female crew. pic.twitter.com/wXJuIYxEJA

— The General (@GeneralMCNews) April 14, 2025

Deeply connected to the divine feminine… blah blah blah. Neo-pagan pseudo-spirituality.

Uh-huh. Rich space tourist in promotional stunt has thoughts about god.

Meanwhile, a professional astronaut was asked about his faith. His answer, shall we say, carried a little more depth.

Franklin Graham tweeted Butch Wilmore’s answer to the question, “I hear you were still attending your church services from space, can you tell me why that was important to you’ with the following caption:

Astronaut Butch Wilmore says that watching church services every week while he was stuck in space for 9 months is what sustained him. He said, “The Word of God continually infilling me—I need it.” He’s absolutely right, and we all need it! Watch…

Here’s the video itself:

Astronaut Butch Wilmore says that watching church services every week while he was stuck in space for 9 months is what sustained him. He said, “The Word of God continually infilling me—I need it.” He’s absolutely right, and we all need it! Watch… pic.twitter.com/EJPQ2P6wAt

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) April 2, 2025

The scene is thick with irony. A trip to the heavens, and where where they looking? Those celebrities on the Bezos trip were so busy looking at themselves, it never occurred to them to look ‘heavenward’.

Meanwhile, the working-class astronaut. The one who went there to get a job done, and found himself with a sudden change in plans, zipping around the planet about 4 times the height of the 62-miles barely-over-the-Karman-Line at 254 miles had no difficulty turning his attention heavenward to something (someONE) higher than himself.

Go figure.