As East Coast clocks struck 8 p.m. on Friday, April 10, thousands of families across the world gathered around their televisions. After just over nine days, the lunar flyby Artemis II splashed down into the Pacific Ocean off of the coast of San Diego.
Prior to 1972, 24 astronauts had seen the Moon with their naked eye. After April 6, four more can say the same. “People take for granted that we sent people to the moon and that we got them back safely almost 60 years ago. That was one of the most amazing human engineering feats. The fact that we can do it today is still amazing,” physics teacher Michael Thompson said.
To undertake this distinctive mission, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) hand-picked an experienced, knowledgeable crew. Holding the women’s record for longest single spaceflight by a woman (328 days), mission specialist Christina Koch had served as a flight engineer for the International Space Station (ISS), with Artemis II marking her second flight to space.
Representing his home country as the first Canadian assigned to a NASA mission, mission specialist Jeremy Hanson had been a CF-18 fighter pilot, having flown the Hawk One F-86 Sabre jet. With 3,000 cumulative flight hours, pilot Victor Glover was chosen to operate the cabin, having previously piloted a NASA mission to the ISS.
Finally, the mission’s success can be attributed to past chief of the Astronaut Office and flight engineer Reid Wiseman who led the mission as commander.
Rather than focusing on new exploration, the mission of Artemis II was to test specific life-support systems and deep-space navigation throughout orbit. If successful, the trip intended to pave the way for developing lunar exploration with the aim of a human mission to Mars. To gather information, the crew traveled a figure eight around Earth and the Moon. According to NASA, gravity of the Earth and Moon naturally guided the crew through their journey, a concept known as free-return trajectory.
As the days passed, those on Earth grew more and more worried about the smooth landing hoped for the Orion capsule. Over half of the world population had not yet lived to see a successful mission, rooting a deep fear in the fate of Artemis II. “When they had the six minute communication blackout on reentry, I felt like I held my breath for six minutes,” physics teacher Kristen Schwartz said.
This fear was prominent in generations such as the Baby Boomers, Gen X and older Millennials due to past major failures Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003). “I was in the ninth grade, sitting in class, watching it on TV. We were just sitting there and watched it explode on TV. So there’s a whole generation of people my age that talk about being traumatized by that,” chemistry teacher Terri Nostrand said.
These generations, with the addition of Gen Z and Alpha, took their strong emotions to their online community: social media. Previous to and directly following the launch, platforms such as Tiktok, Threads and Facebook began to overflow with content, through the forms of edits and shared opinions, about Artemiss II. “I do threads for social media and there were a bunch of people who were all talking about this mission and it was like a community. Online and in general, people were so invested in it,” Schwartz said.
Contrastingly, certain groups of social media users happened to believe that the mission, and ultimately idea of Artemis II, was fake and a scheme by the United States government. Though fear and skepticism were shared, Artemis II ensured it to be short-lived, completing an informative and successful journey.
As the crew passed the Moon’s far side, they were able to capture their real-time reactions and observations through an iPhone. After fully capturing the moment’s greatness in pictures, the crew was able to send the photos 238,855 miles back to Earth. Soon, these pictures of the Earth and Moon went viral back on Earth. Specifically, a selfie of Koch and her braids floating with the entirety of Earth in her background went viral. Due to the misconception that women are unskilled at being an astronaut and going to space, this selfie of Koch sent feelings of empowerment and confidence to girls all around the world. “Seeing how many women were involved, that many female voices and energy leading mission control and the messages they were putting out allowed people to have feelings about it and really get attached to the astronauts and be emotionally interested,” Nostrand said.
Aside from photos throughout flight, the crew kept livestream viewers engaged for the duration of their journey due to their humor and genuineness. From a broken toilet to a floating jar of Nutella, there was never a dull moment. “One of the most impactful moments was hearing the Commander of the crew, Reid Wiseman, propose naming one of the newly discovered craters after his late wife Carroll. It was a reminder that in moments like this that love is central to all of our lives,” biology teacher Miranda Custer said.
As for the future, according to the National Academy of Sciences, the success of Artemis II further emphasizes the importance of lunar exploration, opening possibilities for upcoming missions. NASA had been working toward a successful mission such as Artemis II. The moon observations help to understand scientific data in ways which can guide future research.
Scientists are currently focused on exploration to the point of an ability to live and work in space, a highly debated topic. The success of Artemis II reaching the moon opened opportunity and hope for future experiments involving landing sites across the moon. These future missions will advance knowledge on solar system evolution and if humans could stay healthy, with sufficient resources on space.
