Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out live and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
Every sci-fi junkie knows that those were the words spoken by William Shatner, a.k.a. Captain James Tiberius Kirk, in 1966 to begin a franchise that continues to this day. Star Trek. And on this day in 2021, the Captain actually made it into space, though he did it at far slower speeds than warp eight, the maximum speed of the Enterprise NCC-1701.
If you have an interest in making this flight, you can fill out an application on the Blue Origin website. You must be 18 years of age or older, able to walk up seven flights of stairs in 90 seconds, be between 5’0” and 6’4” in height and between 110 pounds and 223 pounds in weight, able to fasten and unfasten a seat harness in less than 15 seconds, spend up to an hour and a half strapped into the capsule with the hatch closed and withstand up to 5.5G in force during descent.1 Oh, and one more thing. You have to be able to write a check for between $200,000 and $250,000 per seat. So far, that’s what 600 people have agreed to.2
That’s not bad considering that the first ticket sold for $28 million!3
Shatner’s flight lasted 10 minutes from take off to landing, providing three minutes of weightlessness. Once on the ground, emotion overtook him. “What you have given me is the most profound experience, I am so filled with emotion, just extraordinary,” a visibly overcome Shatner told Bezos, immediately after emerging from the capsule. “I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now.”4
Unfortunately, his emotions came for unexpected reasons. “After a few moments of looking out the window, Shatner felt sadness about the destruction of the Earth because of mankind’s interference.
“But when I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold … all I saw was death,” Shatner wrote. “I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness.” Called the “Overview Effect,” which is what happens when a space traveler views the Earth from orbit and feels the overwhelming awareness of our planet’s fragility.
“Author Frank White … said “There are no borders or boundaries on our planet except those that we create in our minds or through human behaviors. All the ideas and concepts that divide us when we are on the surface begin to fade from orbit and the moon. The result is a shift in worldview, and in identity.”5
Through the years, there have been astronauts who have gone into space that are Christians. They’ve seen the same thing as others but came away with a different perspective. While on the moon, Jim Irwin was having problems setting up an experiment. After he prayed, “God I need your help right now”, Irwin reportedly experienced the presence of God’s spirit in a way he’d never felt before.
“The Lord showed him the solution to the problem and the experiment erected before him like a little altar,” his wife said. “He was so overwhelmed at seeing and feeling God’s presence so close… at one point he turned around and looked over his shoulder as if He was standing there.”
“In a 1991 article after Irwin’s death, the New York Times reported that he would often tell church groups he “felt the power of God as I’d never felt it before” in that moment….
“Speaking by radio to Mission Control in Houston, he paraphrase the verse: “I look unto the hills, from whence cometh my help… (Psalm 121:1)
“[Irwin] resigned from NASA within the year, and established the “High Flight Foundation”, a missions organization that billed itself as “goodwill ambassadors for the Prince of Peace.”
“Irwin is quoted as saying, “God decided that He would send His Son Jesus Christ to the blue planet, and it’s through faith in Jesus Christ that we can relate to God… As I travel around I tell people the answer is Jesus Christ; that Jesus walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon.”6
Few people have seen what Irwin and Shatner have seen – at least, not from their perspective. Such a sight, regardless of our perspective, should cause us to worship the 
Creator of this universe. Tonight, if the moon is shining brightly, walk outside, gaze upwards, and agree with the Psalmist. “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; (4) What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (5) For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. (6) Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: (7) All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; (8) The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. (9) O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” (Psalms 8:3-9)
1 https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/jeff-bezos-space-flight-07-20-21#h_ e2ecdb88f345aff03b9f23b88cad478e
2https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/11/tech/blue-origin-jeff-bezos-new-shepard-test-flight-scn/index.html
3https://www.inverse.com/innovation/how-much-did-blue-origin-seat-cost-at-auction
4https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/13/tech/william-shatner-space-blue-origin-everything-you-need-to-know-scn/index.html
5https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/william-shatner-goes-to-space
6https://hope1032.com.au/stories/faith/2019/jesus-on-earth-is-more-important-than-man-on-the-moon-the-legacy-of-astronaut-jim-irwin/
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