rials science,
Rice University,
1988.
Personal:
Married the for-
mer Barbara
Catherine At-
tridge of Green-
wich, England.
Children
Samuel, 19; Orin, 15.
NASA experience: Flew on the
Discovery in 1985; on the Columbia
in 1990; on the Atlantis in 1992; on
the Endeavour in 1993.

SCOTT HOROWTI7

Born: March
24 1957,
Philadelphia.
Considers
Thousand
Oaks, Calif., his
hometown.
Education:
Newbury Park
High School in
California,
1974; B.S. in engineering, Califor-
nia State University, Northridge,
1978; M.S. in aerospace,engineer-
ing, 1979, and Ph.D., 1982, from
Georgia Institute of Technology.
Personal: Married to the former
T.isa Marie Kern.
NASA experience: Named as as-
tronaut in 1992, but has not yet
gone into space.

MARSHA WINS

Astronaut Hoffman displays tools used on space walks.

flight. Before the shuttle launched, he said
the traditional Jewish prayer before travel.
Once aloft, he said the Shehechiyanu, a
blessing over something new.

Unanswered Questions

m

r. Hoffman's fourth flight, aboard
the Endeavour from Dec. 2 to 13,
1993, was during Chanukah. On
the second to last day of the flight,
Mr. Hoffman took out a menorah and
dreidel to photograph them floating in
space. When his crewmate asked what he
was doing, he gave an impromptu talk
about Chanukah, which was later shown
on television throughout the country.
On each of his four flights, Mr. Hoffman
has taken a mezuzah. "A mezuzah makes
a place into a special place," he said.
He prefers to keep his feelings about God
private: "I've never treated the Bible as a

physics textbook. If you interpret it liter-
ally, there are big problems. I believe the
Reform and Conservative movements are
compatible with modern scientific under-
standing."
Christian astronauts also have sought
to make their knowledge of space compat-
ible with their religious beliefs. Apollo 14
pilot Ed Mitchell pursues these issues in
his Mind Science Foundation, which he
founded to offer scientific explanations of
the presence of God.
But astronaut James Irwin, a Christian
who traveled to the moon in 1971 aboard
Apollo 15, believes human beings must ac-
cept God on faith alone. He described his
religious experience in space in his book,
"To Rule The Night: The Discovery Voyage
of Astronaut Jim Irwin." In it, he wrote, "I
felt an overwhelming sense of the presence
of God on the moon. I felt his spirit more

closely than I have ever felt it on the earth,
right there beside me — it was amazing.
I didn't change my habits. I prayed at the
same times that I do on Earth, a brief
prayer before I go to sleep and then when
I wake up. But through those days there
was a gradually enhanced feeling of God's
nearness."
Modern science and contemporary Jew-
ish thinkers are creating a new field of
responsa, or answers to Jewish questions,
about space.
One question: Are mitzvot required on
the moon? One school says mitzvot are
mandated only on "all the days which you
are on the earth" (Deuteronomy 12:1). But
another group says they are required
wherever human beings find themselves.
Also: When does a space explorer cele-
brate Shabbat? Could a mikvah be built on
SPACE page 58

Born: April
15, 1951, Balti-
more.
Education:
Nether Provi-
dence High
School, Walling-
ford, Pa., 1969;
B.S. in aerospace
engineering
from University of Colorado, 1973.
Personal: Unmarried.
Space experience: Flew aboard
the Columbia in 1990 and 1994 and
the Atlantis in 1992.

DAVID WOLF

Born: Aug. 23,
1956, Indianapo-
lis.
Education:
North Central
High School, In-
dianapolis, 1974;
B.S. in electrical
engineering,
Purdue Univer-
sity, 1978; Ph.D. in medicine, 1982,
Indiana University.
Personal: Unmarried.
NASA experience: Flew aboard
the Columbia in 1993.

—L.KS.

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