Joel Kontinen
Last year, Science Daily had an interesting news item on the men who took the bible to the Moon.
"A rare, miniature Bible that travelled on board NASA's Apollo 14 mission in 1971 is up for auction, with bidding — currently underway — starting at $50,000.
Along with the microform King James Bible, which is mounted and framed in a gold-and-enamel setting, the auction lot includes two certificates of authenticity. One document was signed by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, verifying that the Bible made a lunar landing; the other was signed by the Rev. John M. Stout, a NASA information scientist and the director of the Apollo Prayer League (APL), which organized the moon visits of this and other lunar Bibles.
In 1971, Mitchell carried 100 Bibles to the moon's surface. Only 11 copies of the Apollo 14 lunar Bibles bear letters of authenticity signed by both Mitchell and Stout, and of those, seven copies remain in circulation, NSA representatives wrote in the catalogue."
The plan commerorates apollo 1 Astronault Edward White, "who wanted to bring a Bible to the moon but never made it there. White died when a fire ignited during a launch rehearsal on Jan. 27, 1967; the blaze also claimed the lives of two other astronauts, Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Roger Chaffee."
"Not all of the spacebound Bibles made it back to Earth. One paper copy of a Bible with a red cover — brought to the moon on the Apollo 15 mission — still rests on an abandoned Lunar Roving Vehicle dashboard, left by astronaut David Scott."
It also seems that the Bibles brought on the Apollo capsules had to do with the well-being of the crew.
So it seems that the bible-believing astronauts had a lot in common with the one who originally took the bible to the moon or to its nearabouts.
Source:
Weisberger, Mindy. 2018. Rare 'Lunar Bible' That Visited the Moon Is Up for Auction, Live Science (24.8.)
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