Pope gives blessing to astronauts

The 12 astronauts circling the Earth received a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI in the first ever papal call to space.

The pope addressed the crews of the linked space shuttle Endeavour and International Space Station from the Vatican, making special mention of the US commander’s wounded congresswoman wife and the recently deceased mother of one of the two Italian astronauts on board.

The historic communication – “extraordinary” in the pope’s words – took place just a couple of hours after the shuttle astronauts finished inspecting a small gash in Endeavour’s belly to ensure their safety when returning to Earth.

It is the next-to-last flight in Nasa’s 30-year shuttle programme.

Seated at a table before a television set tuned to Nasa’s live broadcast from orbit, Benedict said the space fliers are “our representatives spearheading humanity’s exploration of new spaces and possibilities for our future”.

He said he admired their courage, discipline and commitment.

“It must be obvious to you how we all live together on one Earth and how absurd it is that we fight and kill each one,” the pontiff said, reading from prepared remarks.

“I know that Mark Kelly’s wife was a victim of a serious attack, and I hope her health continues to improve.”

Mr Kelly, who is Catholic, thanked the pope for his kind words. His wife, US Representative Gabrielle Giffords, had surgery to repair her skull on Wednesday, four months after being shot in the head at a political event in her district in Tucson, Arizona.

The shuttle commander told the pope that borders cannot be seen from space and noted that on Earth, people usually fight for resources. At the space station, solar power provides unlimited energy, “and if those technologies could be adapted more on Earth, we could possibly reduce some of that violence,” he said.

Benedict also asked about the future of the planet and the environmental risks it faces, and wanted to know what the astronauts’ most important message would be for young people when they return home.

Space station astronaut Ronald Garan Jr spoke of the paper-thin layer of atmosphere “that separates every living thing from the vacuum of space”.

And shuttle crewman Mike Fincke described how he and his colleagues “can look down and see our beautiful planet Earth that God has made”.

“However, if we look up, we can see the rest of the universe, and the rest of the universe is out there for us to explore,” Mr Fincke said. “The International Space Station is just one symbol, one example, of what human beings can do when we work together constructively.”

Near the end of the 18-minute conversation, Benedict expressed concern for astronaut Paolo Nespoli, whose 78-year-old mother died in northern Italy at the beginning of May while he was serving on the space station.

“How have you been living through this time of pain on the International Space Station?” the pope asked.

“Holy Father, I felt your prayers and everyone’s prayers arriving up here where outside the world ... we have a vantage point to look at the Earth and we feel everything around us,” Mr Nespoli replied in Italian.

Mr Nespoli will end his five-month space station mission tomorrow, returning to Earth on a Russian Soyuz capsule.

He will bring back with him a silver medal that shuttle astronaut Roberto Vittori took up with him aboard Endeavour, that was provided by the pope. It depicts Michelangelo’s Creation of Man, the painting on the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.

Mr Vittori floated the commemorative coin in front of him, then gently tossed it to Mr Nespoli, positioned on the opposite end of the front row of astronauts.

“I brought it with me to space, and he will take down on Earth to then give back to you,” Mr Vittori told the pontiff. He added that he prays in space “for me, for our families, for our future”.

The long-distance papal audience was arranged by the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. Nasa provided technical support from Mission Control in Houston.

Inside the ancient frescoed halls of the Vatican – where email was not even in wide use until a few years ago – the call was received with visible awe.

The 84-year-old German-born Benedict chuckled when one of the astronauts began floating up at the end of the transmission. He waved to the crew at the beginning and end of the call.

Pope Paul VI sent a greeting to the moon with Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, but it was in a silicon disk that contained goodwill messages from numerous countries and was left on the Sea of Tranquillity.

“I look up at your heavens, made by your fingers, at the moon and stars you set in place,” said Paul VI, quoting from Psalms 8.