Satellite with Pope Francis’ words launches into space

A satellite with Pope Francis’ words was successfully launched into space on Monday.

The “Spei Satelles” mission, Latin for “Satellites of Hope,” launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on June 12.

According to the Vatican, the miniature satellite, called a CubeSat, “is now en route to a heliosynchronous orbit, approximately 525 km [.62 miles] above the Earth’s surface.”

“After months of intense work, we eagerly awaited the moment when Spei Satelles would reach the launch pad,” said Sabrina Corpino, the leader of the students at the Polytechnic University of Turin who built the satellite.

“Once the launch took place,” she said, “the students realized that their hard work had truly reached space, and they had contributed to the creation of a real space mission.”

The miniaturized satellite, which can now be deployed into orbit from the rocket, holds a copy of a book documenting the pope’s urbi et orbi blessing of March 27, 2020, when, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, he blessed the world from St. Peter’s Square with the words “Lord, may you bless the world, give health to our bodies, and comfort our hearts.”

“You ask us not to be afraid,” the pope prayed. “Yet our faith is weak and we are fearful. But you, Lord, will not leave us at the mercy of the storm.”

The book, “Why Are You Afraid? Have You No Faith? The World Facing the Pandemic,” has been converted into a nanobook, a 2-millimeter by 2-millimeter by 0.2-millimeter silicon plate, for transport to space.

Pope Francis blessed the satellite and the nanobook after his weekly public audience in St. Peter’s Square on March 29.

The Vatican said March 27 the CubeSat would travel aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX’s partially reusable two-stage launch platform. It will be hosted on the ION SCV-011ION platform, a satellite carrier developed and built by the Italian company D-Orbit.

The Italian Space Agency will operate the satellite, which was built by the Polytechnic University of Turin.

“The satellite is equipped with a radio transmitter as well as onboard instruments to be maneuvered from the ground,” a press release stated.

While in orbit, the satellite will broadcast decipherable statements from Pope Francis in English, Italian, and Spanish on the theme of hope and peace.

The president of the Italian Space Agency, Giorgio Saccoccia, said the Holy See asked the agency to identify a way for Pope Francis’ words of hope “to cross the earth’s borders and reach from space the greatest possible number of women and men on our troubled planet.”

“For those of us who are used to seeing space as the privileged place from which to observe the world and communicate with it without borders, it was easy to imagine a quick, humble, and effective solution to offer wings to the Holy Father’s message,” he added.

The secretary of the Dicastery for Communication, Father Lucio Adrian Ruiz, said “space has a fascination for everyone, especially for young people. Space has that mystery of the universal, the deep, the magnificent, and it makes us all dream.”

By launching Pope Francis’ words of the March 27, 2020, blessing into space, the Vatican hopes to signify that the pope’s prayer, blessing, and universal call to hope continue to be relevant for men and women of goodwill today, he said.

This story was originally published on March 27, 2023, and was updated June 13, 2023. (Hannah Brockhaus/CNA)

A version of this article was first published by Catholic News Agency.