Captain Barry Wilmore is an elder at Providence Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas. He piloted the space shuttle Atlantis and is currently a test pilot for Boeing’s Starliner.
JT: What went through your mind during the launch into space?
BW: You do feel the responsibility of it all. Even though launches these days are mostly automated, you need to think about what procedures to apply if any kind of failure occurs.
Usually you just sit back and watch. I remember flying Atlantis from Florida, and shortly after launch the shuttle carried out its scheduled roll, and I found myself with a great view out of the window, looking right out over the eastern coastline of the US, perhaps as far as Virginia. It was amazing; it was mesmerising – all to the glory of God.
Thoughts went through my mind of the grandeur of what I was seeing; a sense of the privilege that the Lord had granted me the opportunity to see this. But I didn’t need to go into space to learn anything new about God – Holy Scripture is sufficient.
JT: What is it like to walk in space?
BW: I carried out four separate spacewalks for almost 26 hours in total, but not an hour went by without me thinking, I can’t believe we can do this! We can safely send someone out into the deadly vacuum of space, almost as if it’s routine!
