Moonbound

NASA’s gearing up to launch humans around the moon.

The Artemis II mission lifts off this evening at 6:24 p.m. ET (barring bad weather, but forecasters give 80% odds for favorable conditions), sending four astronauts on a nine-and-a-half-day trip around the moon. Commander Reid Wiseman is leading the crew alongside pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. 

The mission will carry them about 4,700 miles past the far side of the moon (see their flight path), where crew members will catch firsthand glimpses of parts of the lunar surface no human has ever seen.

Riding along is a mascot named Rise, a stuffie designed by a California second-grader (see it here), chosen from 2,600 entries across 50 countries, inspired by Apollo 8’s Earthrise photo. Rise is the mission’s official “zero-gravity indicator.”

(We’re covering this story at a 7th-grade reading level with biblical reflection and action steps in Decaf: The Pour Over for Families. Sign up free to get it in your inbox tomorrow!)

CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
Verse to consider when marveling over the vast reaches of space and its origins…

“He stretches the northern skies over empty space; he hangs the earth on nothing.”
Job 26:7 (CSB) (read full passage)