With 'The Sparrow,' Mary Doria Russell imagines an alien world in intimate and fascinating detail—and then sends along some humans with deep questions about faith, God and the universe.

When we think of science fiction, lasers and aliens might come to mind first—but it is also a genre in which religious imagination plays a role.

Once deployed into orbit, the microsatellite was set to transmit papal messages of hope and peace in English, Italian and Spanish that any amateur radio receiver should be able to pick up.

After Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the Moon in July 1969, America's editors called the effort to reach the Moon "so much a symbol and product of human unity as to argue its distinctively religious character in itself."

Finding our place in the cosmos—whether that be via moon landings or our human origins in stardust—has been the subject of more than a few America articles.

I get the sense that a monumental moment in history “passed us by” this week when Russia announced on Tuesday that it would withdraw from the International Space Station before the end of the decade.