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Thank you, Victor Glover
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Love from the moon
Christian astronaut Victor Glover pilots NASA’s first lunar mission in 53 years.
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Two friends and brothers in Christ — Brent Hankins and Tracy Lamm — flew to Florida to witness the launch of humanity’s first lunar voyage in 53 years.
Both had special reasons for doing so.
Hankins serves as an elder of the Southeast Church of Christ in Friendswood, Texas, the congregation about 6 miles from NASA’s Space Center Houston that Artemis II pilot Victor Glover and his wife, Dionna, call home.
Related: Thank you, Victor Glover
“He’s just a top-shelf guy and down to earth, but with all the experiences and accolades,” Hankins said of Glover, who launched into space with three other astronauts at 6:35 p.m. EDT April 1 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
As a shepherd, Hankins said he came to love and support the Glover family and cheer and pray for them.
“It was a rush,” the Texas elder said of witnessing the launch. “I mean, I think we all had tears in our eyes. When we got to about five seconds in the countdown, the magnitude of that was pretty overwhelming.”
Pilot Victor Glover, second from left, with Artemis II crew members, including Commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
Lamm, a member of the Twickenham Church of Christ in Huntsville, Ala., spent 38 years working for NASA and private companies in the space industry. He attended the Southeast church during a four-year stint as a chief operating officer at Space Center Houston in the 2010s.
“It’s pretty moving,” said Lamm, who — with Hankins — watched the beginning of the 10-day test flight around the moon from a seventh-floor hotel rooftop.
Lamm’s voice choked with emotion as he spoke.
“We’ve been trying to find this new launch vehicle and a spacecraft to get us to the moon,” he said. “I spent a lot of years trying to help do that. … It just meant a whole lot to be able to be there and see that.”
Journey into the history books
Glover, a U.S. Navy captain set to celebrate his 50th birthday April 30, became the first Black astronaut to journey around the moon.
Lamm recalled hearing the former combat pilot speak at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Glover paid tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen and other pioneering Black military pilots who came before him.
“I got to hear him say, ‘I’m standing on the shoulders of greatness,’” Lamm said.
“But it goes back to … the connection to God, the connection to people,” the Alabama church member added. “And then being able to share that in a way that brings people to understand that we’re humans, but we were filled with a spirit to serve and to honor and to glorify God in anything that we may do.”
Before Glover’s 168-day International Space Station mission from November 2020 to May 2021, he talked to The Christian Chronicle about sending up communion cups and a Bible for his time in space.
“I want to use the abilities that God has given me to do my job well and support my crewmates and mission and NASA,” he told the Chronicle in that interview. “That’s really the thing I think the most about.”
Podcast: Victor Glover discusses his faith with The Christian Chronicle
After his return home from the space station, Glover discussed his faith on the Chronicle’s podcast and reflected on the lessons he learned partaking of the Lord’s Supper 250 miles above Earth.
“In the military, there’s a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes,” he said on the podcast. “There aren’t any on top of rockets, either.”
NASA astronaut Victor Glover shakes hands with Scott Tingle, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, after Glover’s extraction from the Orion spacecraft upon splashdown off the coast of San Diego.
‘On the shoulders of greatness’
Glover and his Artemis II crewmates — Americans Reid Weisman and Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen — made a record 252,756-mile journey around the moon before looping back to Earth.
Dionna and the couple’s four daughters — Genesis, Maya, Joai and Corinne — invited Hankins and Lamm to attend a reception after the launch. The daughters are all in their late teens or early 20s.
Dionna grew up in the Pinole Church of Christ, about 20 miles east of San Francisco.
Before her husband’s International Space Station trip in 2020, she talked about the mix of emotions she felt as an astronaut’s wife.
“Of course I’m excited, but it’s also a little scary,” she told the Chronicle then. “I’m nervous. I’m excited for him. I have Scriptures that I’m reading regularly to try to remind myself not to worry and not to stress.”
No doubt she experienced similar feelings during her husband’s moon mission.
Related: Christian astronaut — and his communion cups — lifting off on space mission
At the reception, Hankins said he hugged Dionna and told her, “God is so good. I celebrate with you. My heart is exploding with you.”
He recalled telling Corinne, the youngest daughter, “I just love that y’all are Jesus-loving people.”
At the end of the Chronicle’s 45-minute interview with Hankins and Lamm, Hankins asked if he could pray.
“Father, I want to lift up my brother, Victor, and his team that are on this mission,” Hankins said as he raised his voice toward heaven. “Let your name be glorified in it all.”
Victor Glover with his wife and daughters after his return from the moon mission.
Jesus’ ‘greatest command
Glover certainly did his part to glorify God’s name.
In an April 5 interview with Glover and his crewmates, CBS News’ Mark Strassman noted that Apollo 8 — which in 1968 became the first human spaceflight to reach the moon — “had a memorable Christmas Eve reading from Genesis.
“Do you have a message from space that you’d like to share about Easter Sunday?” Strassman asked.
Glover replied that he didn’t have anything prepared but was glad Strassman brought it up.
Then the 49-year-old former combat aviator offered this eloquent response:
“I think these observances are important, and as we are so far from Earth and looking at the beauty of creation, I think for me one of the really personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing. And when I read the Bible and look at all the amazing things that were done for us — who were created — you have this amazing place, this spaceship.
“You guys are talking to us because we are on a spaceship really far from Earth. But you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos.
“Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special. But we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you, just trust me: You are special.
“In all of this emptiness — this is a whole lot of nothing, this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. I think as we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about all the cultures all around the world — whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not — this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are and that we are the same thing and that we got to get through this together.”
On April 6, just before the Orion spacecraft experienced an anticipated 40-minute communications blackout on the far side of the moon, Glover again reflected on his faith.
“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,” Glover said.
“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,” he added. “Christ said in response to what was the greatest command that it was to love God with all that you are. And he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself.
“And so, as we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still able to feel your love from Earth. And to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the moon.”
the Earth draws closer to passing behind the moon.
A hero’s welcome
Americans — and the entire world — celebrated April 10 when the Artemis II crew splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.
In his first post-mission public appearance upon his return to Houston on April 11, Glover again referenced his faith.
“I wanted to thank God in public,” he said, recalling the journey’s beginning. “And I want to thank God again, because even bigger than my challenge trying to describe what we went through, the gratitude of seeing what we saw, doing what we did and being with who I was with … it’s too big to just be in one body.”
Given a hero’s welcome outside his Houston-area home April 12, Glover had a message for his neighbors.
Again, it involved Jesus’ greatest command.
“Some of us have never met before, and you know whose fault that is? Ours,” Glover said. “So let’s choose to do this. Let’s be this more. Let’s be neighbors.
The Artemis II crew is pictured: clockwise from left: Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen and Victor Glover.
“I don’t know if you heard me say it,” he added, “but God told us to love him with all that we are and love our neighbors as ourselves.”
“That’s right!” a woman screamed as the crowd cheered.
“I love you!” Glover replied. “I love you!”
BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He interviewed Victor Glover in 2020. Reach him at [email protected].
