The Artemis Mission United Us All
The Aretmis II crew consisting of: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen. Photo by Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center on Flickr
The mission to space began during the Cold War, where the United States and the former Soviet Union had an unprecedented scientific battle, deemed “the Space Race.” Although the former Soviet Union managed to reach space before the U.S, President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation “to achieve the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to earth.”
It took eight grueling years, multitudes of trial and error and three NASA programs, but the United States got to the moon in 1969 with the Apollo 11 mission.
But since 1972, Americans had not gone beyond low Earth orbit for a multitude of reasons. It’s extremely expensive to fund a space mission, priorities have since been pointed to Mars exploration and after the Cold War, interest in space plummeted drastically.
But in 2026, we are all systems go.
On the afternoon of April 1, the Artemis II launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the intent of completing a ten-day-long flyby of the moon. This mission, in absolute certainty, was not just a success for Americans but for humanity.
The Artemis II crew consisted of Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen.
During this ten-day-long mission, the Artemis II crew was keeping us on Earth updated with photos, videos and even live streams about their endeavors.
Needless to say, the connectivity of this mission unified humanity, for once. We live in a time, especially in America, where everything is polarized. There is no factor amongst us that all Americans can truly reside with and agree upon. But then came Artemis II.
Perhaps this mission was unifying because it had humanity in mind. There was nothing at stake, nothing to gain or lose.
This mission was not done with the expense of anyone or anything in mind. It was pure. It reminded us that humans can be just that, humans. It showed us that we can explore, that passions can be fulfilled and we can venture further -literally- than we ever thought was feasible.
This mission broke barriers that had never been crossed before. Not only did this crew make it a record-breaking 252,760 miles from Earth, but Artemis II also carried the first person of color, woman and Canadian to the moon, only further proving just how inspirational this journey was.
For those ten days, when humans could look up towards the night sky and stare at the moon with a surreal feeling coursing through their veins was surreal to say the least. We all could look up into the night sky and collectively think to ourselves, “there are people up there”.
The younger generation has truly never had a chance to live through a culturally unifying moment like this. The Artemis mission was redefining. It was tangible proof that no matter who you are, no matter your gender, your race or any other factor, you too can sail amongst the stars, metaphorically or literally.