Artemis II Crew Creates History Breaking Apollo 13 Record
- Sumana Mukherjee
- Apr 7
- 4 min read
How does one even begin an article after this photo?
I am a child of a generation that had heard of the Apollo Missions, was too young to understand the might of the PSLV, was too innocent to believe the Shuttle and ISS were forever, and too fascinated by Cassini-Huygens to dedicate years of my life trying to understand the sector when my non-space friends found a way to live their lives happily. To some, I was ambitious beyond my gender, to a few others I was a sign of hope for a better society. But the real reason behind the motivation, which I am beginning to understand now, was the illusion that spaceflight had created for us. Nobody ever showed us pictures of space missions alongside a picture of terrestrial destruction. They made us believe ad astra was the solution to all earthly troubles.
Our school years — perhaps the most impressionable ones — were spent in an age of dial-up modem. There was no endless social media to connect us to a person from another world who didn’t believe what I did. The only ways to learn other perspectives were through news. Now I am talking of a time when people in my city knew space technology as either NASA or if you wanted to be realistic — a job at ISRO, which you could get info on iff you either stayed around ISRO centres or you knew someone working there. Makes you feel grateful for the website announcing the ICRB exams now right?Now when you look around, there are plenty of people for and against space missions. There are people who are actively saying space professionals want others to believe in their bubble which seems to exclude the tragedies of the world. I think wordly facts at the moment are enough to tell you what’s right and what’s not, but it’s the illusion of human spaceflight that I want to highlight in this article.I entered the space sector as an international student during a phase when stable agency missions were going through a transition, and space was embracing the new economy. On paper, sorry on screens, these times felt like the beginning of a new era, but the reality tells you it takes time for startups especially in a complex field like space, to get to a place of certainty. Yet, when I met Col. Chris Hadfield at IAC Toronto, or Astronaut Matthias Maurer at ESA Cologne, the possibilities seemed closer than the paperwork at hand. I was optimistic in an industry that is still bound by nationality requirements for space careers on Earth, because luck gifted me with supportive mentors, and I carried that hope forward when Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla gave us hope from the ISS, at a time when I was struggling to get a paycheck from some Newspace companies.
Today as I see some people rejecting the celebrations for Artemis II because of the current events around us, I understand your reasons, but what if it’s the distance from our own people is what actually makes the human bond stronger? This planet gave us everything, but couldn’t teach us to be together. What if we continued to send crewed missions to the Moon, to Europa or as far needed for us to understand that our survival requirement is only empathy and not hatred? What if we keep building missions whose success depend on the crew working together no matter where they came from? What if the only thing that can fix us right now is taking a look back at our own pale blue dot?With that, here are the posts that I flooded my Meta accounts with yesterday while watching the live-stream by NASA.
1. The Artemis II crew just said they are seeing the Moon with naked eye and it’s unbelieveable!
Kelsey you are wonderful ❤️
Current distance: 248,507 miles from Earth!
2. The Apollo Record has been crossed. The Artemis II crew is now farthest humans have been from Earth.
Crater named as Carroll, in memory of Reid Wiseman’s wife.
The wonderful Dr. Kelsey - the Science Officer spoke directly to the crew via Mission Control.
The crew is now requesting slight attitude changes so they can picture the Moon better. Once they emerge out of the far side of the Moon, they will re-establish comms with Mission Control and report the distance (and more) they went close to the Moon.
Current distance :1. 10,870 miles from the Moon2. Spacecraft travelling at 1066 mph3. 249,390 miles away from the Earth
Jeremy Hansen said he hopes this record is soon broken by future explorers - we hear you Jeremy!
And this Apollo record was set by Apollo 13 mission - Jim Lovell you are missed. Tom Hanks are you watching this?
NASA : CAPCOM is usually the only person to communicate with the crew.
But today Artemis Science Officer Dr. Kelsey Young is speaking directly to the crew 😊
The Artemis II crew is now photographing and annotating features on the Moon.
Coolest Job Ever.
Victor Glover wearing glasses because of the fluid shift.
Christina Koch is explaining their observations of Mare Imbrium from a couple of days ago.
NASA is now talking about my favourite part : combining Artemis II crew observations with LRO data.
Slept off at this point, and read the news of Integrity safely re-establishing contact with Houston after the flyby around the far side of the Moon.
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen, and Victor Glover — thank you and wish you a safe trip back home.Did you watch the livestream on NASA’s YouTube channel too? Let me know in the comments below.
Ad Astra,
Sumana.
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