Witness to history: Artemis II, lunar exploration and hope
ORLANDO, FLORIDA. I’m a space-crazed Canadian who has somehow seen 11 launches across four different rockets since 2009. I’ve witnessed missions with astronauts, interplanetary spacecraft and (inevitably) Starlink, across two continents. But Artemis II took me by surprise yesterday (April 1). The Space Launch System was so bright it was almost painful to look at. The arc of its plume across the sky made noise and noise and NOISE minutes after launch. And the grizzled photographers surrounding me on the press-site lawn at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida were screaming: “TO THE MOON!” And cheering. And yelling the phrase again. It’s literally 16 hours after launch as I type this. I’m in Orlando airport trying to look relaxed, as much as one can on three cups of coffee and five hours of sleep. It feels ridiculous thinking about suitcases and flight arrangements. I’ve been asking myself, “What is normal? Can this be normal?” Fellow Canadian Jeremy Hansen is on his way to the Moon, with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch. I’ve been wanting to see any Moon mission with astronauts for 30 years; now there’s someone up there from my own country, and while