Earth's history is laden with various conflicts in terms of man's different perspectives on religion, politics, philosophy, and personal views. However, different each of us may be with one another, each of these differences disappear when one goes beyond the confines of this planet and sees the Earth, a blue marble planet, from a distance.
With this, the relationship of the American and Russian space missions throughout the years was riddled with different sorts of issues, but they thrived over the years nonetheless. American outer space dominance in the next 5 years is most likely to decrease, leaving the International Space Station to be highly dependent on Russian supplies and resources.
Degrees of rivalry within the American and Russian astronauts are present and this is most likely due to different religious beliefs that the astronauts and cosmonauts have.
American Efforts to Bring Religion and Beliefs in Space
Ronald Garan, a Catholic astronaut, went up to Earth's orbit with the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux, as well as the saint's teachings about the Word of God. This shows that religion is not just inside the Earth's boundaries, but is already quite literally reaching the heavens.
The religious beliefs are due to his close connection with a group of Texas nuns. The bringing of holy objects into outer space has long been a tradition for some of the American astronauts in past years.
One instance is when NASA auctioned out the microfiche Bible which was brought to the surface of the Moon by an American astronaut at the height of the country's lunar missions in 1971.
Russian Religious Beliefs Transported to Outer Space
The instances of these religious and spiritual connections are also present with the Russian cosmonauts.
Russian cosmonauts are also known to bring with them copies of the Holy Bible's New Testament to the Russian portion of the International Space Stations (ISS). Together with this are also some of the stone fragment relics that were said to be from Mount Thabor, where Jesus Christ appeared to three of his apostles in what is known to be the Transfiguration.
