Back to the Moon

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The crewed mission set to launch this week will not land, but do a lunar flyby. 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/03/30/science/nasa-artemis-ii-m... (gift link)

https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

One of these days, Alice!

if we went in the 60's....why did we never go back?

seems like it is still technologically difficult.

I don't understand. Maybe I'm an idiot.  But we're going to the moon to set up a base from which we can go to Mars?  In all those inhospitable conditions????

Can't we get there from here without spending all that fucking money that could help do so many other things? Is that like saying we're setting up a base in Philly so we can go to LA from NY? 

That being said, I'm still amazed by human ingenuity and I think July 20th ought to be a national holiday to celebrate the accomplishment of landing on the moon -  AND GETTING BACK!!!

Instead of wasting billions circling the moon, we should put that money to good use and send capsules on a weekly basis filled with politicians to study the surface of the Sun.  

Spaceman was a good movie, imo. Netflix.

 

... just had a flashback to my first-grade self watching the Apollo mission launch w/ my classmates.

That was fun!  My dad got a job at JPL when we moved back from Hong Kong in 68, got to see an Apollo launch in person back in 72(?).  Did the full tour too, great experience for a young kid (and eternal science nerd!).  Long live (good / honest) science!!!    

Cool to hear, Noodler!  My college BFF, Beth, got to watch launches from Cocoa Beach as her dad was an engineer on the Apollo projects -- she has a lot of cool mementos from that era. 

I bet she had a blast (off)

I just wonder how fast it can make the Kessel run

When you said "Kessel run" I thought you meant this;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukp7J5xfpNM

AR.jpg Hot Shot

mother in law's picture from Melbourne

z artemis.jpg

Cool pics, Tim and DZ. We're on the flight path for a lot of the SpaceX launches from Vandenberg, but they're much smaller than the one launched yesterday.

One of my first memories is the launch of Mercury 9 when I was about 2 1/2 years old. I distinctly remember my mom putting me in a plastic laundry basket (my personal spacecraft) and plopping it in front of the TV. What probably made it memorable was the launch got scrubbed because they had trouble with the gantry, but then launched the next day.

Harry Nilsson - Spaceman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fND5WUxwi_Y

I'll mention here too that I recently saw a 1989 documentary, For All Mankind, that I thought was quite good. It uses NASA footage from the Apollo program with a soundtrack from Brian Eno, his brother Roger, and Daniel Lanois.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-o7ge8zylI

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_Mankind_(film)

Somehow I knew exactly what that link would lead to,BSS.