It’s been over 50 years since humans left the Earth’s celestial backyard, and as of April 1st, we’ve stopped making excuses. Wednesday evening, four astronauts strapped themselves into a rocket roughly the size of a 30-story building, and then went from 0 – 500mph in two seconds. History happened this week. Were you watching?
Where most gooners’ feeds were filled with the Best OnlyFans creators shaking their moneymaker, those of us who are proud Space Camp alums spent yesterday glued to a completely different feed. Humanity going into space is always exciting, but yesterday’s launch was a big deal for completely new reasons.
What are those reasons? Glad you asked! Pilot Victor Glover is the first Black astronaut to ever travel beyond the Earth’s orbit to the moon’s vicinity, a civil rights and scientific milestone that has been decades in the making. Apollo was notorious for being a white dude only club on board the capsules, so this particular victory is long overdue, and worth celebrating loudly.
The Canadian Space Agency also sent Jeremy Hansen along on the mission, and he’s the first Canadian to travel beyond the Earth’s orbit. The mission was also quietly conducting yet another milestone behind the scenes with launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson. She is now the first woman in the history of NASA to serve as launch director for a crewed mission of this kind of magnitude. She has been the one overseeing months of delays, hydrogen leaks, and keeping the helium gremlins in line as they prepared for launch. So two glass ceilings were shattered when Artemis II left the Earth’s atmosphere. One in the capsule, and one in the firing room, both tear-inducing if you’re me.
The crew of Artemis II won’t be landing on the moon; what they’ll actually be doing is circumnavigating it. Think of it as a highly dramatic 10-day lap around the giant sky egg, and then they’ll be returning safely home to celebrate with their friends, family, and broader scientific community. The key test that they’ll be conducting is the Proximity Operations Demonstration, where the crew will be manually piloting Orion towards the rocket’s upper stage, getting within roughly 33 feet, and then practicing docking for future lunar landing missions. That drama lap is actually a dress rehearsal for humanity’s grand return to the lunar surface, because Artemis III is intended to attempt the actual landing.
This is the first crewed deep space mission since Apollo 17 in December of 1972, and the tests conducted on the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (the most powerful rocket ever launched with humans on board, nbd) will directly inform future missions. Reminder: Artemis III is set to attempt the first crewed moon landing since 1972. Where is all of this leading? Well, scientists are treating the moon as a stepping stone to reaching Mars. This mission is the first toppled domino in a long chain, one that scientists have been building towards since they first looked up at the sky and said “what if space?”.
Prior to launch, Pilot Victor Glover reflected that rather than just sending a text or making a phone call, he got to look his family directly in the eye and tell them that he loves them. If thinking about a devoted family man — who just happens to be the first Black man to enter lunar orbit — taking the love he has for his wife and daughters all the way out to the literal universe isn’t enough to make you feel a feeling, then I don’t know what will. But after 50 years of waiting, humanity has finally decided that their moon play gets a second act, and the Space Camp kid that is still inside me somewhere can’t stop kicking her feet and squealing.
