I don’t and I think it is the slick media savvy interactions. It is like media training was up there with managing zero gravity.
This moon trip thing – anyone give a rat’s ?
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I would have been happier if they’d put trump and his followers aboard and ‘forgot’ to bring them back.
They’d all be far too chickenshit to get on board a 300 foot high rocket full of explosive fuel.
When I say ‘put’ I mean rounded up and herded aboard. They seem to like that for others so im sure they wouldn’t object.
Bayonets come to mind.
Personally, I’d be happy if they’d just watched the launch. From 5 yards away.
What I want to know is did they find a prism with a rainbow spectrum?
I suspect the Trump administration see it as a handy distraction from their failed distraction war, which was intended to distract attention from the Epstein files.
In less troubled and more normal times, revisiting space exploration would be something worth celebrating. I cannot find it in me to get excited about it, right now.
Trump defunded much of NASA in his efforts to stamp out scientific research.
Hence him saying little about something which reminds the world of a positive expression of American energy and competency. “We were born to go”, as Hawkwind wisely observed. Wish that twat would go.
He’s sure to try and take credit for it.
Of course. It’s fantastic.
There are relatively few endeavours that demonstrate the power of cooperation and collaboration to the same extent as the things NASA does. We should celebrate them. NASA exists within a political ecosystem that is currently controlled by a psychopathic orange narcissist – the crew’s delicate ‘media training’ may be the only thing protecting them from the quixotic de-funding whims of a fat nappy wearer.
Yes, one of the very few things to celebrate in recent years. It’s a pity that gobshite had to butt in at all.
He has defunded chunks of it I read somewhere
Junes – here’s something worth getting worried about!
yep vicious little fuckers. Habitat is up there in the tropics, all those paradise type beaches that you see in travel agents.
Catch is there is them and crocs in the water.
Which is why I’ve never been in the water in Oz. Only a matter of time before the bastards turn up down here.
I’m into it – it’s glorious to see the deployment of science and human ingenuity for something so inspiring and at least potentially beneficial.
Not everything in life has to be about you know who.
Very true. I know he had to impose himself on the astronauts, as he does with everything else, but otherwise it’s made a nice change for the news to show us highly intelligent, articulate, and skilled people doing something that is far beyond the rest of us, and clearly having the time of their lives.
When the world is going to hell in a handcart, it’s good to know there are people with visions of an interesting future, and the know-how and ability to make those visions a reality one day. I doubt I’ll still be here by the time when people living on the moon or exploring further afield is taken for granted, but my imagination loves the idea that there are teams of people capable of working out how to make that happen.
When our every waking moment is dominated by a gibbering, uncouth loon who I wouldn’t trust to safely run a bath, it’s reassuring to be reminded of what humanity can achieve.
I used to occasionally dream of being an astronaut (just the meaning of that word, “star voyager”, is thrilling). Then I realised that I didn’t meet a single requirement for the job, so that was that. But discovering what was involved only increased my admiration for those brave souls who are willing to risk their lives by leaving our planet in the interest of humanity and science.
Good luck and a hearty “Bravo!” to all involved.
I came here to say how much I was into this – but the Captain has said it all, and probably better than me.
I watched the lift off with some interest. Reminded me of my childhood and it was intriguing that after 50 years advancements in technology it appeared to be almost identical to how it was back then
You can’t change the laws of physics, Dai. When it comes to maximum specific impulse, it’s hard to beat LOX/LH2; unless you want to use fluorine in place of oxygen and I think it’s all quite dangerous enough as it is!
Of course, more amazed at what they achieved almost 60 years ago.
Afterword t-shirt.
Golden Age!
Watch the climb after take-off…
It killed more German pilots than it ever did Allied ones.
To be fair to Trump, every single manned NASA mission gets a call from the president so he can’t be blamed for this. Although there’s a clip on social media out there of the astronauts running out of pleasantries and the ensuing dead air is great cringe comedy 👌
Of course! As the son of an engineer who went to Woomera in the early 1960’s to watch ‘his’ Blue Streak rocket launch, I am a Space Geek. I love the photos, the videos and the interactions with Mission Control. I shall be glued to NASA TV tonight, with everything crossed, hoping for a safe return.
Seems they went there then went round it and then came back … or maybe I haven’t been paying attention
I think PSB’s gimmick/motif of basing songs around old dialogue clips and recordings is inspired, and their use of speech from Apollo mission controllers works particularly well.
Here’s a live version of the Apollo-themed Go. I’m probably reading far too much into this, but I like to imagine that when the crowd join in with the voices of the controllers telling Armstrong and Aldrin that it’s OK for the Eagle to stay on the moon (at about 3m 50s) that they’re celebrating the astronauts’ achievement as much as they’re just enjoying the song.
I saw them a year or so ago at Bexhill. I’m glad I went but I don’t need to see them again. Visually great but, for me, they haven’t bettered their first album.
This too
Good grief, I know JFK was a deeply flawed individual, but what an astronomical gulf there is between his rhetoric and the incoherent babbling of the current monster. How far poor America has fallen.
A close friend of mine’s dad also worked on Blue Streak; and Blue Steel. In his retirement, he and some of his former colleagues were approached by the Americans at the time of Reagan’s “Star Wars” missile defence project to pick their brains. Seems they were doing stuff in the ’50s and ’60s the US was still trying to catch up with in the ’80s 🤣
I am absolutely loving it. Though the naming of a ‘bright’ landmark after the late wife of one of the crew had me in bits – very moving, particularly when they supported each other with a spontaneous group hug. These astronauts are the best of (north) America.
Good to see memories of the 6 year old me happening again.
Bring it on.
I think it’s astonishing. It’s awe inspiring. All space travel is.
We sit and watch footage of these individuals, calm and assured in themselves and their equipment. And you have to force yourself to realise their true situation. A quarter of a million miles away suspended in a vacuum inside an airtight metal case the size of a transit van. They are exquisitely small and hopelessly far away.
And yet we can all reasonably expect their return. Yeah, science Mr White!
I follow a few science geek YouTube channels, some of which spend a bit of time debunking the wholly ridiculous but growing flat earth cult. The ‘flerfs’ are predictably scoffing at the supposed fakery. Posting videos on their digital equipment which relies on satellite technology to work…
At the risk of trivialising this important event, I wonder what odds I would get for Mark Kelly as next president of the USA?
Yes.
There’s a great sequence in The West Wing – it’s what’s next.
It’s taken us too long to do this. And it’s the staging post for Mars. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the Space Station – it’s about what we can do, and how we drive forward. We do these things not be cause they are easy, but because they are hard.
Did they acknowledge JFK or his speechwriter Ted Sorensen ?
…and they’re back safely!
To answer the original question, No.
Americans bigging themselves up for no earthly (!) reason, distracting the world from its problems – which to a very great extent are caused by Americans.
But we need to see that our endeavours can be bold, dangerous yet achievable. We need to see what staggering things the human race is capable of, when it isn’t bombing the crap out of itself and allowing tyrannical despots to flourish. Surely things like this are beacons of hope?
I hear what you say, Vulp – but to me, space travel is a colossal waste of money that could and should be spent on 101 other things for the benefit of the planet and people…
Looks like Trump might agree with you…
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/apr/11/artemis-ii-nasa-budget-cuts
“The Donald” still doesn’t seem to have taken credit for it. What’s wrong?
I agree that with the current state of America’s economy the timing is bad. However the project has no doubt been in progress for a few years leading up. Cancelling would cost nearly as much as doing it and would definitely have been pounced upon by the Republican Right as an excuse to disband NASA entirely.
Speaking as a third-generation engineer, it’s a brilliant bit of tech overcoming the problem of gravity (as invented by Newton in 1666*).
Because the orange fruitcake sucks all the air out of the room, what you didn’t hear reported much is that the middle bit (which steered it towards the Moon once it was in Earth’s orbit) was European, made on Stevenage, and part-designed by my mate Chris in a light industrial unit round the corner from my gaff.
On my honeymoon the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art had an exhibition of photos taken during the 1969 Moon landing. All B&W and blown up to eight feet tall. They were mesmerising.
(*) Physics nerd joke.
Apparently the company I work for had some hardware in the spacecraft. Doubtful it was anything I worked on, but if it was then I presume they used a very secure programming and read mode containing masses of redundancy. Hope so anyway
* meaning chances of failure are one in hundreds of million
The European Space Agency, of which we are still members in the UK, designed and built the support module. i.e. life support, propulsion and power for Artemis. The principal British contribution was the means of keeping the extensible solar panel arms constantly pointed towards the sun for power.
NASA has had it’s funding drastically cut under Trump’s presidency, so I understand why it’s been promoted by them as such an American endeavour. Maintaining Trump’s relative indifference to it is probably better than giving him cause to get annoyed at Europe’s participation.