Popes, their astronomers and space stations

Pope Benedict XVI made a live video link up with astronauts currently in residence at the International Space Station on Saturday, marking the last mission of the Shuttle Endeavour. 12 astronauts were present in the space station, including Italian Colonel Roberto Vittori, who has carried a silver medal gifted by Pope to the station.

“The space station is a way of keeping human beings in space while we wait for our technology and the political will to start advance to the point where we can start travelling with some ease to the moon and to the other planets”, says Br Guy J. Consolmagno S.J., one of the astronomers at the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo. “The big experiment that we have going on is that we have had people living there continuously for ten years”.

Though admitting to having been ‘too afraid of heights’ as a child to ever contemplate becoming an astronaut, Br. Guy told Emer McCarthy he would now ‘jump at the chance’ to experience life in space and reveals his own personal encounter with one of the astronauts on board the station: Listen