Tag Archives: NASA

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Artemis II impact was greater than I thought

Well, kids, it appears that the Artemis II mission to the moon and back had a greater impact on me than I thought it would have.

I could have done a lot of things today. The weather is warm and breezy. I could have spent the day outside working on my yard. Instead, I parked in front of the TV and watched two Netflix documentaries on the Apollo space program. One dealt with the Apollo 11 mission that put human beings on the moon’s surface for the first time. The other dealt with the Apollo 13 mission that brought home three astronauts in a high-stakes deep space rescue mission.

Yes, the Artemis II mission has invigorated my interest in recent history. It returned me to the days when I would await launches with my Mom, counting down until lift-off. Mom is gone now. I, of course, am now an old man … but damn, this stuff gets my heart beating rapidly.

And to reiterate what I’ve said already on this blog, I tend to allow my sappiness to show itself when I cry at signature moments while watching documentaries I have seen dozens of times already. It happened today when Neil Armstrong informed the world, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” And again, when the Apollo 13 chutes deployed and the astronauts splashed down safely in the ocean.

There truly are heroes still left in this world. Today’s binge-watching reminded me of what I have known all along.

Oh, and FYI … I did mow my front lawn.

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Can’t shake Artemis II’s afterglow

It’s weird feeling as I continue to feel in this period after a spectacular mission to orbit the moon.

The Artemis II flight launched April 1 was our first manned flight to the moon in 54 years. Four astronauts got an up-close look at the dark side of the moon and snapped some astonishing pictures they transmitted to Earth.

I wept when the rocket launched. I cried when the astronauts came out of their communications blackout upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Damn! I behaved like a schoolboy when I would watch the Mercury and Gemini flights with Mom.

I don’t want to shed that glow. I now believe that desire hinges on what we’ve been enduring while our federal government continues to flounder and thrash as it seeks to govern. NASA’s success with Artemis II reminds us that the government can do great things. That we have the technological know-how to accomplish a high-stakes mission.

It won’t get any easier when NASA starts to prep for its moon landing mission. The space agency is preparing a new rocket for that task, Artemis III, the largest rocket ever built.

OK, I did nothing to accomplish this success. I am just a citizen, a patriot and a man who’s sickened by what is happening here, and in Iran and all the many trouble spots around the world. I am looking for something on which to hang my hope for the future. Artemis II has helped restore my hope.

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More ‘hard’ tasks remain for NASA

President Kennedy once reminded us — as if we needed reminding — that humankind doesn’t reach for the stars because “it is easy”; we do so, he said, “because it is hard.”

Artemis II has returned four brave astronauts from its loop around the moon. The landing was picture perfect. The heroes splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at precisely, to the minute, on time. They called it a “bulls-eye” conclusion to the first lunar mission in 54 years.

Let us remember what JFK told us in 1962. This is an endeavor with many thousands of moving parts. Virtually anyone of them could produce a tragedy were they to fail. I won’t presume is less difficult in 2026 than it was in the early ’60s. Indeed, the nature of the technological beast that will transport future heroes may be more difficult.

Let us always presume that future missions contain grave risks to the human beings who suit up for missions such as the one that captivated the nation with Artemis II’s success doesn’t lure us into complacency.

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Well done, Artemis II crew!

My eyes have been wiped sufficiently clean of the tears that have flowed from the ducts as I have cheered the splashdown of the Artemis II crew.

We have returned to manned space travel courtesy of NASA, the federal space agency created in the 1960s to explore our solar system. Call it a new form of Manifest Destiny. Artemis II has set the table for a launch eventually to the moon that will establish what we believe will be a permanent station on Earth’s sole celestial orbiter.

This is a great day for Americans for those around the world who have grown weary of the dysfunction, the hatred and tumult that has infected the American system of government.

Sappy ol’ me did what I knew I would do. I cried when the crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after flying around the moon. It was the first up-close lunar visit in more than 50 years.

Well done, NASA. I am proud of the crew, the engineers and all who gave us reason to weep tears of joy.

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Welcome home, Artemis II!

Allow me this admission that comes with a plea for understanding if I look a bit bug-eyed for most of the day.

The four-person Artemis II lunar orbiter mission is set to splash down this evening in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, Calif. The rocket that propelled the astronauts to the moon now gives way to the Orion spacecraft that will carry the astronauts back home.

Understand that my candid plea is deserved because of what occurred on Feb. 3, 2003 at the end of space shuttle Columbia’s 16-day Earth orbit mission. The Columbia shuttle mission, commanded by Amarillo resident Rick Husband, ended when the shuttle broke apart as it returned. We lost all seven of the astronauts in that tragic conclusion.

Now we hear about possible damage to the Orion heat shield. I hope you understand my anxiety today as the Artemis II crew prepares its return to Earth’s terra firma.

The four-member crew has joined the growing list of space-travel heroes who will be feted with parades and endless speaking engagements.

Let’s get through this latest moment of possible danger. I likely will weep tears of joy when I see those parachutes open and Orion splashes into the Pacific Ocean.

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Looking fondly at moon … again!

I woke up this morning, stepped outside and caught myself looking with renewed fondness at the moon.

Imagine that. Earth’s lone moon once more has become the subject of scientists’ curiosity. NASA has sent a spaceship hurtling toward the moon. It will get there in a day or so, circle the celestial body, take lots of pictures of its dark side and then come back to Earth.

Artemis II will make the farthest journey from Earth in space travel history as it sling-shots around the moon. I am acutely aware that the three Americans and one Canadian aboard the ship are prepping for a much grander mission: establishing a moon settlement and then prepare for a much longer journey to Mars.

This initial return to the moon in 54 years is good enough for me. It thrills me greatly to see NASA back in the business of sending Americans into deep space.

As of the past few days, the moon doesn’t look so far away.

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Fly, Artemis, fly!

Allow me this brief admission, which is that today for the first time in decades my eyes filled with tears of joy as I watched the Artemis II rocket fly into space en route to the moon.

Watching the rocket blast off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., reminded me of the many mornings I would watch and wait for Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts fly into history. Mom and I would do so together and we cried together too.

When was the most recent time I cried at the launch of a spaceship? I believe it was the 1998 launch of the shuttle Discovery as it contained, in the words of NASA’s announcement upon launch, a crew featuring “six astronaut heroes and one American legend.” The legend happened to be John Glenn, who was making his second flight into space 36 years after orbiting three times aboard his Mercury capsule.

We have once more seen American ingenuity score a huge triumph with the successful launch of the Artemis II rocket. We have returned to the effort of putting astronauts on a deep space target. The moon awaits. The Artemis II crew will visit the moon up close, orbiting the celestial body and coming home. Eventually, we’ll head for Mars … what happens next remains anyone’s guess.

I am thrilled to watch this effort unfold. Today, we took a relative baby step as Artemis II roared off the launch pad as it writes another chapter in our nation’s rich scientific history.

Godspeed, Artemis II crew!

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Yes, let’s go back to the moon!

President Kennedy had a rare talent for putting current events into context, for making us ponder the value of what we were about to undertake.

“We don’t seek to land on the moon because it is easy,” JFK said in a speech at Rice University in Houston. “We do it because it is hard.” Yes, the task of meeting Kennedy’s end-of-the 1960s goal of landing a man on the moon and “returning him safely to the Earth” was arguably the most challenging assignment ever handed to Americans.

We succeeded on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong took “one giant leap for mankind” on the lunar surface.

Eleven more men would walk on the moon before we ended that program in 1972. But … we’re about to return to the one deep-space body that contains human footprints.

I am one American who relishes the idea of watching the next generation of astronauts continue our journey into the unknown of our world’s creation. Artemis II is set to take off soon. It will carry four astronauts to the moon. It will carry the first Black astronaut, the first female astronaut and the first astronaut from another country.

The question persists: Why do this again? I believe we should do it because we have a lot more to learn about the moon. The final Apollo mission, Apollo 17, brought back a trove of info on the moon. Did it close the book? Did it answer every question we ever will ask about Earth’s sole orbiting body? Hah!

I am delighted to see American ingenuity being put to work once again. Artemis II’s task will be to ferry space travelers 250,000 miles from Earth and bring them home safely. What’s more, as with the Apollo program, we have a race to win. This one is with China, which is planning a lunar landing of its own. NASA’s plans call for Artemis to land a crew in 2028.

Bruce McCandless, who’s written extensively about space travel, writes in an op-ed published Sunday in the Dallas Morning News, “You don’t get to be good at space travel by thinking about it. You get there by going.”

And so, we’ll be “going” there once more to fulfill humankind’s quest for knowledge.

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Wanting to cry again

My sappiness is a personality trait I have displayed with pride and without apology on this blog for many years.

My eyes get wet when I see historical events over and over: Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame in 1996; Barack Obama declaring victory in the 2008 presidential election; the moon landing in July 1969.

I want to revisit briefly the final item I just listed. I watched a Netflix documentary titled “Apollo 11,” our nation’s first successful space mission that landed on the moon. Hey, I know how it turns out. But still, my eyes welled up when I heard Neil Armstrong declare, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

Today I made a decision as I watched the documentary film. It is that I want to cry again at our nation’s scientific know-how. It will come eventually when we send men back to the moon aboard another rocket, the Artemis ship that is being prepared to launch from Florida. The first mission won’t end with a moon landing, but the program eventually send astronauts to the moon for lengthy stays.

A long time ago, my mother and I would watch the Mercury astronauts lift off as the nation began its first baby steps toward space exploration. We continued to watch the missions of the Gemini program that succeeded Mercury. Then came Apollo. I wasn’t able to watch all of the Apollo missions with Mom, as I was serving in the Army. But I still cried when they were completed successfully.

We walked away from the moon missions. Skylab came and went. Then we had the shuttle missions. I cried when the three astronauts burned to death on Apollo 1 in January 1967. And when Challenger blew up moments after liftoff in January 1986. And when Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry in February 2003.

Artemis represents another “giant leap for mankind” when it will soar toward the moon. NASA’s goal is to use the moon to prep for missions to Mars. Oh, man … I hope I live long enough to see the first Mars mission lift off.

I am sick and tired of being angry at world events. I want desperately to cheer for some seriously positive — and heroic — deeds from ordinary men and women.

I want to cry tears of joy again.

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Glenn knew the lingo

John Glenn served his country with honor, as a Marine Corps fighter pilot during the Korean War, as an astronaut chosen to blaze our trail into space and as a U.S. senator from Ohio. This man led a full and rewarding life.

Sixty-three years ago today, Glenn got strapped into a Mercury space ship and launched into space for a three-orbit mission. He became the first American to orbit the planet. The Soviet Union already had put two men into orbit: Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov. President Kennedy had declared his intention to put a “man on the moon and return him safely to the Earth” before the end of the 1960s. The space race was on!

Kennedy didn’t live to see his mission accomplished.

Here’s the thing about Glenn: He always stayed alert to the space program and likely wished for a second trip into space. In 1998, 36 years after his first ride, Glenn got to spend several days aboard the shuttle Discovery. His mission was to expose his 77-year-old body to the rigors of space flight. He was the oldest human at the time ever to fly into space.

What is so cool about this flight, though, is the knowledge and fluency in astronaut lingo that Glenn brought to the mission. Two other members of Congress —  Republican Sen. Jake Garn of Utah and Democratic Rep. Bill Nelson of  Florida — had flown already. They, however, needed some schooling on the language that astronauts speak to communicate. Nelson, interestingly, is now director of the NASA space program.

Glenn  needed no such tutoring. He knew precisely how to communicate in astronaut jargon. It made his training easier and less cumbersome than it likely was with his congressional predecessors.

I just wanted to call attention to this great American patriot and honor his magnificent service to the nation he loved. His Mercury and shuttle flights were two leaps he  executed during his distinguished public service career.