Le silence des étoiles, version presse
- Roland J. Keller
- 27 juil. 2025
- 5 min de lecture
[Bulle, le 23 juillet 2025] – Il y a des articles qu’on signe soi-même. Et puis il y a ceux… où l’on devient soi-même le sujet. C’est ce qui m’est arrivé ces derniers jours, dans un très bel article paru sur Cath.ch, un article réalisé par Raphaël Zbinden, intitulé simplement :
ENGLISH BELOW
C’est un portrait qui retrace mon parcours de passionné d’espace, de photojournaliste des pas de tir américains, et de croyant assumé — pas toujours orthodoxe, mais profondément traversé par cette grande horlogerie céleste qu’est l’Univers.Le journaliste Raphaël Zbinden a su trouver le bon ton, mêlant anecdotes humaines, étapes clés de ma carrière, et réflexions personnelles sur le lien entre foi, cosmos et silence.
Et il a tout compris : j’ai beau avoir vécu 45 lancements de fusées, je ne suis jamais redescendu tout à fait.
Les coulisses de l'interview
Tout est parti d’un simple mail, un peu en mode « bouteille dans l’espace » : j’avais proposé un sujet autour du lien entre spiritualité et conquête spatiale en rapport aux missions spatiales Apollo. À ma surprise, c’est moi qu’on m’a proposé de raconter.
Nous nous sommes retrouvés… en Gruyère, un clin d’œil parfait à mes racines familiales du côté de ma chère Léontine, ma grand-mère, celle qui m’a vu m’extasier devant Apollo 11 à la télévision en 1969.
Pendant plus d’une heure, j’ai évoqué les vibrations du sol de Cap Canaveral, le choc de Challenger, mon vol ZéroG avec Clervoy, la tête à l’envers dans le Hunter de Claude Nicollier… mais aussi ce qui reste entre les lignes : ce qu’on ne peut pas mesurer, peser, ni expliquer. Le mystère.
Une fusée nommée Artemis et un livre en chantier
Cet article tombe à point nommé. Car je boucle justement un projet de livre sur mes 45 lancements vécus sur site — un récit croisé entre technique, journalisme et humanité, avec un zeste de silence cosmique en fond.
Et si tout se passe comme prévu, le chapitre 46 s’écrira en avril 2026, sur place, au moment du lancement d’Artemis II. Une mission très symbolique : la première à ramener des humains vers la Lune depuis 1972. Et j’y serai.
Roland J. Keller: Searching for God Among the Stars
Roland J. Keller has witnessed 45 rocket launches and spaceflights. A lifelong believer, the aerospace journalist from Switzerland sees the cosmos as a prime setting for spiritual questioning.
NASA cap on his head, ESA T-shirt on his back — you can’t miss what drives Roland J. Keller. Meeting him in Gruyère, you quickly realize he’s an inexhaustible source when it comes to space.
Since his teenage years, the journalist has always had his head in the stars. He’s the only accredited Swiss reporter allowed right up to the launchpads in the United States, and he’s well known in space circles. He’s on a first-name basis with many astronauts, including the Swiss Marco Sieber and Claude Nicollier, with whom he even flew in a fighter jet.
Over the course of several decades, Keller has attended no fewer than 45 space launches, mainly at Cape Canaveral, Florida, but also in Texas and at the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana.
A Moonlit Awakening
Like many of his generation, Keller caught the space bug during the first Moon landing on July 21, 1969. He was 13 at the time."I was at my grandmother's, watching on a small portable TV. We both watched that historic moment around four in the morning," he recalls.
It was a moment that deeply marked him — a moment he still describes as “mystical.”"When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and said, ‘That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,’ I was overwhelmed. I realized millions of people were watching this same moment, across the globe. It wasn’t just an American event. It brought humanity together and showed what we can achieve, beyond war."
A Hunger for Space
Born in 1956 into a practicing Catholic family, Keller attended church nearly every Sunday as a youth. Like for many in the Jura region at the time, religion was ever-present. Though he later distanced himself from some of its more rigid aspects, he never lost his faith — a source of strength that helped him through challenging times and gave him the confidence to pursue his dreams.
“After Challenger, I was totally crushed.”
From the moment he watched the Moon landing, Roland lived and breathed space. He devoured every article and TV segment on the subject. With limited money, he found creative ways to fuel his passion."I managed to charm the local newsstand lady," he laughs. "She let me browse the space articles in the magazines."
From Precision Mechanics to the Launch Pad
Becoming a space journalist wasn’t a straightforward path — there was no such school or career track. And in rural Jura, his passion for space was often dismissed as a fantasy. So Keller took a more conventional route. He trained in precision mechanics, then pursued engineering and technical studies in Biel.
While working in industry, he started freelance writing — often on unrelated topics — for newspapers like Le Démocrateand local village bulletins. His reputation grew, and on April 12, 1981, he was sent to Cape Canaveral to cover the launch of the first space shuttle, Columbia.
The Dream That Burned Out
In late 1985, Keller left engineering to found his own agency, Astropresse. But like Icarus, he flew too close to the sun. On January 28, 1986, he witnessed the tragic launch of Challenger, which exploded shortly after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.
"The shock didn’t hit immediately," he explains. "But a few days later, I was deeply shaken. Watching those people die, feeling powerless — it made me question everything. I paused my career. I was totally crushed."
Like NASA itself, it took him time to recover.
“I can’t imagine this grand celestial clockwork without a designer.”
In this dark period, faith helped him get back on his feet."The accident made me reflect deeply on life and death. But being a believer gives you hope — the sense that it all has meaning. That sustains you."
To make ends meet, he worked part-time selling life insurance, while continuing journalism the rest of the time.
Lift-Off… Again
His second wind came in 2008, when he was offered the editor-in-chief position at Swiss Engineering, a magazine based in St. Gallen. From then on, he focused fully on journalism — bringing his aerospace connections and passion to a wider audience.He began regularly attending launches, now not just as a fan or freelancer, but with full professional backing.
His reputation grew, leading to ever more extraordinary experiences — including a zero-gravity flight in 2016 alongside French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy.
The Cosmos as a Spiritual Mirror
Though long past retirement age, Roland J. Keller has no intention of stopping. He’s already looking forward to his next space rendezvous: the launch of Artemis II in April 2026 — part of NASA’s program to return humans to the Moon by 2027.
He’s also nearly finished writing a book chronicling the 45 launches he’s witnessed — part memoir, part travelogue, part meditation on wonder.
“Even the most skeptical people start to ponder when they face the vastness of space.”
No matter how many rockets he watches disappear into the sky, Keller still feels the same awe — and the same spiritual tremor.
"I just can’t imagine that all this magnificent cosmic machinery has no creator. To me, something must be behind it."
Having met many astronauts, astrophysicists and space insiders, he insists:
“The contemplation of the universe leaves no one unmoved. Even the most rational minds start to wonder. The cosmos is the ultimate place for spiritual reflection.”
(Translated from the French article by Raphaël Zbinden, cath.ch – July 2025)
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