'Godspeed, John Glenn!': How The Late Astronaut Saw God In Space

First Posted: Dec 15, 2016 03:35 AM EST

Late astronaut and American hero John Glenn previously opened up about how space travel had strengthened his faith.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that John Glenn, who passed away on Dec. 8 at the age of 95, boldly talked about the strong co-existence of science and faith.

John Glenn was the first American who orbited the Earth and was among the many astronauts who have deepened their faith as they explored the vast and wondrous universe, believing it was indeed created by God.

"To look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God is to me impossible," John Glenn said in his 1998 interview after he returned from his final space travel on Feb. 20, 1962 at the age of 77. "It just strengthens my faith."

Also a devout Protestant Presbyterian, John Glenn then delivered a sermon titled Why I Know There is a God upon his return where he explained that there is indeed an enormously Powerful Force in order for objects -- from as tiny and detailed as atoms and particles to the massive measurement of the solar system and the infinite scale of the universe -- to exist.

"Could this have just happened? Was it an accident that a bunch of flotsam and jetsam suddenly started making these orbits of their own accord? I can't believe that," he said. "This was a definite plan. This is one big thing in space that shows me there is a God. Some power put all this in orbit and keeps it there."

John Glenn then became an elder in Presbyterian Church USA and attended the National Presbyterian Church while he was a member of the Congress.

John Glenn's friend, who is also a Presbyterian elder and former astronaut, Buzz Aldrin tweeted his sympathy upon hearing his death. "RIP and Godspeed John Glenn," Buzz Aldrin wrote.