He likes to pick up the phone, and now Pope Francis is making his first call to outside the planet — and into space.

The Pope is today set to reach out to the six astronauts on the International Space Station.

It is the second call by a Pope of its kind: Francis's immediate predecessor, Benedict XVI called the space station in 2011.

Back then, the Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli was aboard the orbiting lab, and now he is up there again, along with three Americans and two Russians.

The European Space Agency has prepared the arrangements for the call, with NASA's technical support.

According to the Associated Press, a large Catholic contingent led by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, will gather at Mission Control for the conversation.

The US astronaut Jack Fischer has said that his faith grew while he was in orbit aboard the space station. He invited his priest to his Houston homecoming last month, having landing in a Russian capsule on the other side of the world.

'You look out the window and you can't help but feel that we're just one small part of a bigger whole,' said Fischer. 'Just seeing this mind-blowing beauty of the universe, it grows your faith in ways that it's hard to even describe.'