15. The Christian rite of communion has been taken on the moon
During the Apollo 11 mission, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the surface of the moon, carried with him the means to take communion while on the lunar surface. Aldrin was an elder of the Presbyterian church, and he carried with him as personal equipment a communion kit that had been prepared by his pastor. Neil Armstrong, his companion in the lunar module, stood by but did not take part in the rite. NASA was aware of the activity planned by Aldrin, and allowed it to go forward, but it kept the act quiet at the time. An earlier mission, Apollo 8, had included a bible reading by the astronauts as they orbited the moon on Christmas Eve, which had led to a lawsuit against NASA.
Aldrin took communion in both forms (bread and wine) and in 1970 he mused to Guideposts magazine, “It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements”. The lawsuit which resulted from the Apollo 8 mission was eventually dismissed and other religious rites have since been conducted in space, including on Shuttle missions and on the International Space Station. Aldrin later indicated that had he had the opportunity to redo the Apollo mission, communion would not have been part of his plans, since it excluded other religions, not in line with the idea of going to the moon “for all mankind”.