An earthquake on Wednesday morning caused some damage to a beloved Salt Lake landmark. The Angel Moroni statue atop the Salt Lake City Temple was stripped of its trumpet due to seismic activity. This did not deter the Church’s plan to launch the statue into low orbit later on that same day.

“We were aware that some superficial damage to the statue could occur during the launching process, so losing the trumpet before takeoff isn’t enough to force a grounding.” said chief aeronautics consultant Dieter F. Uchtdorf. This launch was part of preparations for a worldwide broadcast of a Joseph Smith hologram that is scheduled to speak during the upcoming April general conference.

Over the course of scheduled renovations to the temple, the Angel Moroni was updated to contain state-of-the-art projection and signal relay equipment that could project a lifelike hologram into the home of anyone watching general conference. “We promised that this general conference would be something special, this was part of our effort to make good on that promise.” commented hologram technician David A. Bednar. “I’m glad that we’ll still be able to carry on with our plan. I wish it would have remained a surprise though.”

The statue is scheduled to orbit the earth from now until the conclusion of April general conference. Church leaders plan to then trigger a smooth landing back atop the temple. Elon Musk has praised their plan as “visionary”, stating ” To see them pull this off will really be amazing. I hope our team at Space X learns as much as possible from observing the flight of this statue.”