NASA chose the right crew to launch a new era of human space exploration | “It’s a special thing to be human, and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth.”
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/04/rockets-and-spaceships-are-cool-but-the-humanity-of-artemis-ii-resonated-most/
9 Comments
>Their mission is complete. The four people who flew beyond the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II mission are back home in Houston with their families. But the lessons from Artemis II are just beginning to be told.
>There are tangible, objective takeaways from the nine-day mission. How did NASA’s Space Launch System rocket perform? Nearly perfectly. Was the Orion spacecraft up to the job of flying to the Moon and back? Absolutely. Will engineers need to make any changes before the next Artemis mission? Yes, and that’s not terribly surprising for a program that, 20 years in, has just flown a crew to space for the first time.
>Ars has covered the technical lessons from Artemis II, such as hydrogen leaks on the launch pad, helium leaks in space, and a toilet that wasn’t always available for No. 1.
>But there’s something else that must be said. NASA struck gold when it selected the astronauts to fly on the Artemis II mission. NASA’s opaque formula for picking space crews worked three years ago when Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen strode across the stage inside Hangar 135 at Ellington Field. It was there that the agency held an extravagant event to announce the crew for Artemis II, complete with VIPs, spotlights, and an elaborate stage setting flanked by a supersonic jet trainer.
>Three years and eight days later, Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen returned to Hangar 135 on Saturday afternoon with the same enthusiasm and excitement. But they arrived with an entirely different perspective, having wrapped up their circumlunar journey less than 24 hours earlier.
They seem like such an optimistic, charismatic group of people.
The mission was a treat to watch and a greatly appreciated distraction from world affairs.
“NASA chose the right crew”
As opposed to the wrong crew? Huh?
“The diversity is nauseating……….” maga
Actually it is GREAT!!!!! We are all one race the HUMAN race! And hats off to another American first!
At least we can win at something meaningful and beneficial to humanity once again!
They took some banger photos.
A crew with good values, morales, and stories to tell!
“A special thing to be human” feels like an oddly intriguing statement. Being human is cool and all, as opposed to the alternative? 👀
I didn’t watch too much of the mission, but I did hear there was quite a bit of religious talk. Is that correct?
No, they fing didn’t. One of the greatest scientific achievements, and these clown astronauts kept mentioning religious nonsense, over and over. Utterly absurd, pathetic and embarrassing.