Shabbat in space and Communion in space

I previously posted on a midrash written for Ilan Ramon, the astronaut who took a Torah scroll into space with him on the Shuttle Columbia back in 2003. I love how Melanie Fine (who wrote the midrash) imagines that pieces of the Torah scroll survived the destruction of the Shuttle Columbia and drifted out into space and reached extraterrestrials. It’s a really wonderful piece. I recommend it highly.

Today I wanted to post on Ilan Ramon and Buzz Aldrin — both as examples of astronauts who kept traditional religious ritual in space: Ramon, Shabbat (first video), and Aldrin, Communion (second video).

I don’t know of any other religious rituals that have been performed in space. If you know of another, please comment or email and let me know? Thanks.

(You might want to skip ahead to minute 1:16 in the second video, as that’s where’s the description of Buzz Aldrin performing the communion ritual begins.)