{"id":384724,"date":"2026-04-06T13:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/384724\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T13:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:36:08","slug":"christian-astronaut-pilots-first-moon-mission-in-53-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/384724\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Astronaut Pilots First Moon Mission In 53 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two friends and brothers in Christ \u2014\u00a0Brent Hankins and Tracy Lamm \u2014 flew to Florida this week to witness the launch<\/a> of humanity\u2019s first lunar voyage in 53 years.<\/a><\/p>\n

Both had special reasons for doing so. <\/p>\n

Hankins serves as an elder of the Southeast Church of Christ<\/a> in Friendswood, Texas, the congregation about six miles from NASA\u2019s Space Center Houston<\/a> that Artemis II pilot Victor Glover<\/a> and his wife, Dionna, call home.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just a top-shelf guy and down to earth, but with all the experiences and accolades,\u201d Hankins said of Glover, who launched into space with three other astronauts at 6:35 p.m. EDT Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n

As a shepherd, Hankins said he came to love and support the Glover family and cheer and pray for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a rush,\u201d the Texas elder said of witnessing the launch. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamm, a member of the Twickenham Church of Christ<\/a> in Huntsville, Ala., spent 38 years<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty moving,\u201d said Lamm, who \u2014 with Hankins \u2014 watched the beginning of the planned 10-day test flight around the moon<\/a> from a seventh-floor hotel rooftop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His voice choked with emotion as he spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to find this new launch vehicle and a spacecraft to get us to the moon,\u201d Lamm said. \u201cI spent a lot of years trying to help do that. \u2026 It just meant a whole lot to be able to be there and see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

No atheists on rockets<\/p>\n

Glover, a 49-year-old U.S. Navy captain, will be the first Black astronaut<\/a> to journey around the moon.<\/p>\n

Lamm recalled hearing Glover speak at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center<\/a> in Huntsville.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The former combat pilot paid tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen<\/a> and other pioneering Black military pilots who came before him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to hear him say, \u2018I\u2019m standing on the shoulders of greatness,\u2019\u201d Lamm said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it goes back to \u2026 the connection to God, the connection to people,\u201d the Alabama church member added. \u201cAnd then being able to share that in a way that brings people to understand that we\u2019re humans, but we were filled with a spirit to serve and to honor and to glorify God in anything that we may do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Glover\u2019s 168-day International Space Station mission from November 2020 to May 2021, he talked to The Christian Chronicle<\/a> about sending up communion cups and a Bible for his time in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to use the abilities that God has given me to do my job well and support my crewmates and mission and NASA,\u201d he told the Chronicle in that interview. \u201cThat\u2019s really the thing I think the most about.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his return home, Glover discussed his faith on the Chronicle\u2019s podcast <\/a>and reflected on the lessons he learned partaking of the Lord\u2019s Supper 250 miles above Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the military, there\u2019s a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes,\u201d he said on the podcast. \u201cThere aren\u2019t any on top of rockets, either, I would think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excited and nervous<\/p>\n

Now, Glover is rocketing nearly 250,000 miles<\/a> to the moon.<\/p>\n

Dionna and the couple\u2019s four daughters \u2014 Genesis, Maya, Joai and Corinne \u2014\u00a0invited Hankins and Lamm to attend a reception after Wednesday\u2019s launch. The daughters are all in their late teens or early 20s.<\/p>\n

Dionna grew up in the Pinole Church of Christ,<\/a> about 20 miles east of San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before her husband\u2019s International Space Station trip in 2020, she talked about the mix of emotions she felt as an astronaut\u2019s wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I\u2019m excited, but it\u2019s also a little scary,\u201d she told the Chronicle then.<\/a> \u201cI\u2019m nervous. I\u2019m excited for him. I have Scriptures that I\u2019m reading regularly to try to remind myself not to worry and not to stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

No doubt she\u2019s experiencing similar feelings now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the reception, Hankins said he hugged Dionna and told her, \u201cGod is so good. I celebrate with you. My heart is exploding with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalled telling Corinne, the youngest daughter, \u201cI just love that y\u2019all are Jesus-loving people.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the Chronicle\u2019s 45-minute interview with Hankins and Lamm, Hankins asked if he could pray.<\/p>\n

\u201cFather, I want to lift up my brother, Victor, and his team that are on this mission,\u201d Hankins said as he raised his voice toward heaven.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLet your name be glorified in it all.\u201d <\/p>\n

This article was originally published by The Christian Chronicle. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two friends and brothers in Christ \u2014\u00a0Brent Hankins and Tracy Lamm \u2014 flew to Florida this week to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":{"0":"post-384724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}