At the beginning of April, the world watched as four astronauts traveled around the moon inside the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis II mission.
It was the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence on the moon for science and exploration. The mission gave us brand new images of the moon and tested key equipment and procedures for future missions.
It’s an exciting moment in history, both for the public and for scientists. Manfred-Olson Planetarium director and Lake Effect Astronomy Contributor Jean Creighton saw the mission as a unifying moment for the U.S. and the world — one that highlights NASA’s work at a time when private space travel companies dominate the news.
“It was great to see a group of people who obviously liked each other and a woman as part of the team, the first person of color to go around the moon and a Canadian, so not just one nation [represented],” she says. “It just felt like the right message for the moment.”
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