On Friday, Pope Francis was given his very own space jumpsuit by the astronauts from the International Space Station who made a courtesy call to him, and even added a white cape to distinguish him from the usual planetary pilgrims.
As he was handing the space suit to the pope, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli said to the pope "Since clothes make the man, we thought we'd have a flight suit like ours made for you."
The pope responded gaily at the statement and even jokingly responded "Ok, and you will plan my trip."
Nespoli, who was joined by four other Space Station veterans - three Americans and one Russian, said that the suit was identical to those issued to the astronauts and made with the same material. It has the pope's name at birth, Jorge Bergoglio, and the flag of his native country, Argentina.
The Italian astronaut added, "Then we decided that the outfit was good, but, since you are the Holy Father and the Holy Father has his own uniform, we made a cape."
The said cape was white and bore the Vatican flag, the official NASA wings logo and "Pope Francis" embroidered on it.
Nespoli was a part of the astronauts who were aboard at the International Space Station last year when the pope had a 20-minute video call with them from the Vatican. The discussion in the call discussed how fragile the Earth was from space and that they were privileged to be able to see the planet "from the eyes of God."
