Faith at the Launch Pad

The Soviet space program was once considered a soaring symbol of the communist atheistic philosophy. However, Jim Oberg writes on how Faith in God is now freely celebrated at the Kazakhstan launch site for Russia's space ventures.

But in a radical cultural revolution, the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991 unleashed a long-underground religious impulse even among the elite of Soviet society, "rocket scientists" and the military hierarchy.

Within months of communism's fall, a small Russian Orthodox church was organized at the space center in an abandoned sporting goods store. A young Russian priest came to town, held religious services and at the request of officials began blessing rockets and space crews. Cosmonauts began carrying traditional Russian icons into orbit.