Buzz Aldrin received communion on the moon

On July 19, 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar lander made contact with the moon's Sea of Tranquility, but Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were unable to exit the ship until several hours later. Aldrin took the opportunity to partake in self-communion. Aldrin had been granted permission to send bread and wine into space because he served as an elder at the Webster Presbyterian Church in Texas. Later, he noted that because the moon's gravitational attraction is only one-sixth that of Earth's, the wine "curled softly and beautifully up the side of the cup." He urged people to reflect on the occasion through mission control, but he later acknowledged that he ought to have sought for a more inclusive celebration.

“We had come to the moon in the name of all mankind—be they Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, agnostics, or atheists,” Aldrin wrote in his book Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home From the Moon. “But at the time I could think of no better way to acknowledge the enormity of the Apollo 11 experience than by giving thanks to God.” By the time he got back to Earth, more practical matters were on Aldrin's mind: He had to send an expense report (for $33.31) to NASA for the moon trip.