Author Carol Mersch Shares the Unknown Story of Apollo Astronauts Who Tried to Land "A Bible on the Moon"

Carol Mersch, author of The Apostles of Apollo, has released an updated version of her book re-titled, A Bible on the Moon, that includes Apollo 11 Buzz Aldrin's unusual query to Mission Control about an unusual spacecraft hovering nearby.   

"Do you have any idea where the S4VB is in respect to us?" Aldrin asked, a veiled request for the position of the final stage rocket jettisoned earlier. Traveling alongside Apollo 11 was a mysterious object.

"There was something out there that was close enough to be observed," Aldrin said. "If the object wasn't a part of the Apollo rocket, it could be only one thing-a UFO." The implication escaped Mission Control.     

The second little-known event was one that took place shortly after Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong uttered "Houston, the Eagle had landed."

Aldrin, an elder at  Seabook Methodist Church in Clearlake, FL, had made quiet arrangements with church pastor, Dean Woodruff, to partake in communion on the moon at roughly the same time as the church congregation on earth. .  

After lunar landing, unbeknowndst to the thousands of people watching and listening on earth, Aldrin removed a small silver chalice, a vial of wine, and a partial wafer used earlier during a private communion service with Woodruff at the church.    

"I poured the wine into the chalice," Aldrin said. "In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements."

Another item stowed onboard was the first book ever landed on the moon-a miniature copy of Robert Goddard's 1966 autobiography, carried by Aldrin as a token for his widow.

The book that came later, however, was destined to make biblical history. Apollo astronauts, their families, and pastors joined in a quest to see the Holy Bible carried to the surface of the moon.  

But undertaking a religious endeavor in the midst of a government space program was not an easy task.  The first notable obstacle was a lawsuit launched by renowned atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair against NASA to prevent religious acts in space.  The second was that an ordinary Bible was too large and too heavy to be carried in the    astronauts' 4" x 6" personal kit-the only allowable means for NASA to maintain separation of Church and State.

The force behind the quest was NASA scientist and chaplain Rev. John Stout and his 40,000 member Apollo Prayer League, a non-profit organization made up of NASA employees at remote outposts and tracking stations around the world. It fell to Stout and his Apollo Prayer League to find a way.

Stout's first solution came with the development in 1965 of a new micro-reduction technology whereby all 1.245 pages of the King James Bible could be reduced to a single microfilm roughly the size of a color slide. This was something the astronauts could carry.  

Madalyn O'Hair, on the other hand, was a force to be reckoned with.

The result was an extraordinary drama that unfolded behind the scenes as America rushed headlong to the moon. https://vimeo.com/368562488

"A Bible on the Moon" is available online in paperback and eBook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-a-Million.

 

 

 

 

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