It appears that there is some headway being made on the issue of the NASA employees allegedly being prevented from using the name of Jesus in a staff mail e-mail newsletter as the Johnson Space Agency recently issued a statement upholding the rights of the employees to exercise their religious rights.

Confusion arose after the Praise and Worship Club last year submitted a routine announcement to JSC Today, a daily e-newsletter that provides information on various events, The Blaze reports.

The announcement, which invited employees to join a praise and worship session entitled "Jesus is our life!", ran in the newsletter but organisers were later informed that including "Jesus" in their communications would no longer be entertainment as this runs contrary to the First Amendment or the "Establishment Clause." The group was encouraged instead to use 'Lord' or 'God'.

In the recent response provided by NASA, the agency clarified that it does not prohibit the use of any specific religious names in employee newsletters and internal communications, Patriot News reported.

"The agency allows a host of employee-led civic, professional, religious and other organisations to meet on NASA property on employee's own time. Consistent with federal law, NASA attempts to balance employee's rights to freely exercise religious beliefs with its obligation to ensure there is no government endorsement of religion. We believe in and encourage open and diverse dialogue among our employees and across the agency," it said.

For his part, Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for First Liberty, the law firm handling the case for the Praise and Worship Club welcomed NASA's statement.

"Whether for an employee praise and worship club email announcement or the words spoken by an astronaut in orbit, employees in America enjoy religious liberty at work," Dys said.