About F–king Time.
Mission Commander Reid Wiseman
Pilot Victor Glover
Mission Specialist Christina Koch
Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen
These are the four astronauts taking humanity back to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 Lunar Mission in 1972.
Specialist Koch will make additional history by becoming the first woman astronaut to fly around the Moon on the partially solar-powered Artemis II Orion Capsule.
Pilot Glover will be the first Black Man to accomplish the feat.
I was six years old the last time humanity went to the Moon.
Hopefully, today’s six-year-olds will not have to wait 54 years for the next one.
Hopefully, by that time, lunar colonies will have been established and humanity will have set foot on Mars.
The mission will take ten days to go around the Moon and return to Earth with Artemis II planning to splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
Arizona Senator and former N.A.S.A Astronaut Mark Kelly was in Florida to watch the Artemis II Launch.
In his posts from the last couple of days, the Senator marveled at the technological innovation behind making the launch possible.
Hours before the launch, he said:
“In later years, we’re going to send Americans back to the surface of the moon, hopefully ahead of the Chinese, and establish a lunar presence with people on the surface of the moon. It’s inspiring, but it also pushes technology forward, and I think that’s really an important thing for the American people to understand. It does take a lot of resources to do programs like this, but it is really only here in the United States of America that we’re able to marshal those resources, that technical talent, the engineers and scientists we need to do this, to do hard things, and when we do hard things, we get a lot out of it.“
After the launch, Senator Kelly posted:
“When I look up at that rocket and the four astronauts sitting on top of it, I see America at its very best. Our country is deeply divided, and we have real challenges. But I’d encourage everyone to watch this launch today and be proud of our country and what we’re capable of when we work together.”
Senator Kelly is right. This is America at its best and shows what can be accomplished when differences can be put aside (Trump and Biden Administration officials pursued this return to the Moon) to further humanity’s dreams and aspirations for progress.
God Speed Artemis II.
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I love space! Grew up with Gemini and Apollo, saw Neil Armstrong jump off the ladder when I was nine.
If science was a girly magazine, NASA would be the centerfold.
Hubba hubba! Check out the brains on this babe!
But as much as I love NASA and space there are very good reasons we haven’t been back to the moon.
The moon dust alone is a nightmare, it will make you sick, it literally sticks to everything, and it’s like sandpaper, it destroys gear and your lungs.
NASA rightly said “hey, let’s send robots to Mars and satellites to Saturn’s moons, more science bang for the buck”.
Of all the things America spends money on, like the current illegal war in Iran, covering the White House in tacky gold like it’s a sleazy casino in Reno, or paying 200 million for Kristy Noem’s cowboy hats and custom fuck plane, NASA would be the very last thing I’d cut.
But I’d cut the shit out of the NASA budget in a hot second to make sure everyone has food, shelter, an education, and healthcare.
Anyway, here’s what’s going to happen, we’ll get to the moon, start building something stupid on the moon, I’ve heard wifi and cell service from tech companies, and at some point the budget shit will hit the fan.
Trump added nearly two trillion to the national debt in his first year, and we’re burning a billion a day on an illegal war we already lost.
He’s talking about cutting child care and Medicare to pay for his illegal war.
Trump’s policies were already sending the economy south, now that process has been juiced with ‘roids and the entire world economy is in danger.
So whatever we start to do now will get abandoned in the next few years when we suddenly realize we never actually had the money.
And that cell phone tower in the Sea of Tranquility will be slowly eaten by moon dust.
FYI, this has already happened with a lot of NASA programs, including returning to the moon.
So this is not a prediction, it’s a pattern.
I’m going to make a killing on Polymarket betting on it and while I’ll win lots of money, I will be sad about it.
And, I might add, Artemis hasn’t done much to bring us all together. There was no surge of national pride. It’s more like an elite group gets to do this and watching just isn’t as much fun as it was in 1969. People seem more interested in gas prices.
Yep, and if China didn’t announce they were going to the moon we would not be going to the moon.
It is not in any way the best use of our science dollars.
It’s a pissing contest.
These PR pieces about mining on the moon and how we’re all going to get rich are right up there with Tesla full self driving on the Buncha-Bullshit scale.
We are also never sending humans to Mars because we do not live in a science fiction movie.
Good lord, our education system has failed America if people believe half this crap.