Recently, a United States-based lawyer, Mr Owolabi Salis, became the first Nigerian to travel to space. He was one of the six passengers on Blue Origin’s NS-33 mission, which launched from West Texas on June 29, 2025. In this interview conducted on Your View, a TVC programme, he narrated his experience. Excerpts:
How did travelling to space feel? What made you try it? Were you not scared?
I was actually not scared. I went on the journey. It was a pilgrimage. I believe that pilgrimage is not limited to a particular region. I have been doing a lot of travelling.
I have been to over 100 countries. I have been to very important places on our planet. I have been to the South Pole, I have been to the North Pole, I have been to Greenland. I have visited over 100 places.
And when you do such travels, it is good to observe the culture. You look at the forests of the places. Let us assume you come to Nigeria, you will see the city, then you go into the culture and the forest.
You observe all that the Lord has created in various places. After taking a tour of the South Pole, I took a tour of the North Pole, Greenland and so many other places. I just decided to do a pilgrimage to space. So, I submitted my name.
And they called, they accepted me and I paid. I wholly believe that pilgrimage is not limited to a particular region. Pilgrimage is to observe the beauties of the planet and beyond. The more you see, the more spiritual standing you have.
In many of your interviews, you mentioned that you had no fear because you are a member of the Soulmaker Ministry. I would like to have an understanding of what Soulmaker Ministry is about and its tenets. What do they teach that gives you such confidence without you being afraid that the rockets may explode?
It is a ministry that focuses on the creator of our soul, the maker and owner of all souls. And we have had this ministry for a long time. Going to space makes us really confirm the importance of the soul-maker. We all know that there is some kind of spirit being, a supernatural being up there that gives everybody a soul.
When I say give a soul, it means your first roots to life. When your mother conceived you, for example, a soul is given to your mum, and that is your first root to life.
Without the soul, there is no life. So we are all speaking to each other because there is a soul in our body. So when the soul leaves the body, they won’t be able to speak to me and I won’t be able to speak to you. The soul is the key to life.
It is the primary spirit. We call it the primary spirit that brings you to life, and that is your first root to life. It is common to all human beings. It is delivered by the almighty Lord of the universe to every human being in a pure form. When you now get conceived, the soul is given to your parents.
So we see your parents as your second roots to life. The first root is the almighty Lord that gives you the soul. Your second roots are your parents. And your third roots are your familiar ancestors. You are looking at your grandfather, your great-grandfather and your ancestors.
Could you please give us a play-by-play of the process?
It was more of conducting a pilgrimage, which is linked to a spiritual study. I have done that in a lot of places on the planet. I applied, called, got the fee and I paid. On the day we were to go to space, we were invited to a village called Astronaut Village in Texas. We went through intensive training. In Texas, there is also Blue Origin.
I went on Blue Origin. There is a SpaceX too, around Texas, that was supposed to fly some payloads to space that, unfortunately, is widely reported. When they were about to fly to space, there was an explosion, and the SpaceX exploded. That was less than a week before we started training.
A lot of people debated whether they should continue to join the space. Well, I had decided to join. So I told my people. We were supposed to fly on June 21. And June 21 is the solar solstice day. That is when the sun is at the equator. During that time, we did not get a shadow, and it was windy in the southern and northern hemispheres. We were in the capsule, and were about to take off in counts of one, two, ten, nine, eight, ten. Suddenly, the wind appeared heavily, and they had to scrub it. They stopped it, scrubbed it and disengaged it into a shelter.
The second day, June 22, the wind continued to blow heavily, and then they scrubbed it again, then the management decided that we should give it one more week. We had to go to our various places, and came back on June 29 to continue the tour. On June 29, the wind was very nice, and it was very beautiful. So, on the count of nine, ten, eight, they blew on the key, and we moved.
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