What possible reason to keep this secret, other than to deny faith as legitimate?
It is a serious question. I would like to hear reasonable answers.
You can bet now that they would give them a prayer rug for a Muslim astronut.
I don’t think this was ever a secret.
I remember when John Young took a clandestine sandwich into space, and later Li’l Abner went to the moon with a sandwich. The moon men took lots of photos of him, but none of the moon men.
The first Bible readings of Genesis from Outer space which set off the atheists demanding equal time, so they offered them equal time. Just get yourself into space and do it.
First I’ve herd of this. Maybe it was kept quiet because of the atheists will again be upset, even though it was fifty years ago.
They knew the odds of getting out and making it home was very low. Giving thanks for what they did accomplish seems reasonable to me as it all went ok so far.
Why that wasn't reported is interesting.
As explained in Aldrin’s book: It was kept a secret because NASA had come under fire from atheists during Apollo 8 when they read Genesis from moon orbit.
Political correctness was just getting it’s legs in 1969.