Godspeed, Artemis II

“We are go, for all of humanity,” said Jeremy Hansen, as the four-person crew on NASA’s Artemis II rocket prepared for its 6:35 p.m. take-off on April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Shortly before lift-off, Hansen, who is serving as mission specialist on his way to becoming the first Canadian to fly into deep space, held a brief video call with Prime Minister Mark Carney, who wished the crew “Godspeed.” Their mission, which will include a fly-by of the moon, is to lay the groundwork for a planned lunar landing in 2028, which will see the building of a base to aid a future mission to Mars. The Artemis II flight is evoking a similar buzz to the last moon landing in 1972, which concluded with Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan uttering these prophetic words: “We leave as we came and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”