I didn’t expect this, but Artemis II got me excited — eventually.
When I heard about four American astronauts headed into space to circle the moon, my first response was nonchalance. After all, I’m old enough to have seen some historical Apollo space flights in the 1960s. This was nothing new, it seemed to me.
But eventually I paid attention. Once I heard who the four astronauts were, what they were doing, and what they were saying, I started to get involved.
The crew consisted of Commander Reid Weisman, a naval aviator with two young daughters; Victor Glover, an African American who graduated from nearby Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; Christina Koch, a woman engineer; and Jeremy Hansen, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
These were all individuals I could relate to and who together represent well the America I know (North America to be exact).
Near the end of their mission, when I watched the space capsule returning to earth and splashing down, my feelings shifted from involvement to excitement.
And then I started to ask myself “Why?” Why, having experienced Apollo, was I so excited for Artemis?
The first words that came to mind were “hope” and “unity.” I had renewed hope for my country and my neighboring country. For a time (ten days to be exact), Americans felt united, all Americans (in the United States and Canada).
These were our people up there — circling the world and then the moon. We were all rooting for them, their success, and especially their safe return. And I think the rest of the world was rooting, too.
And, for a little over a week, we were all united, which in today’s era of divisions is a rare feeling. And that feeling in turn generated hope, a hope that the future might bring other opportunities for unity.
Another word that came to mind was “respect,” respect for all the scientists and engineers who made the mission possible and successful. In today’s world, science is often taken for granted or downplayed, sometimes even sneered at. But it took a lot of science and engineering to make this work.
I also had renewed respect for mathematicians, especially math teachers who have taught students the skill of mathematics, especially those high school teachers and college professors who taught students who would become scientists and engineers.
“Teamwork” was another word that came to mind, the intense level of teamwork it took to make this succeed — among the NASA scientists and engineers and especially among the four astronauts, who came from different backgrounds but meshed as a team. In their interviews with the media, all four of them emphasized the ongoing teamwork it took for their mission to be a success.
“Perspective” was another word I thought of, the perspective the astronauts gave us with their photographs and words. From their perspective of thousands and thousands of miles away, the world, as they described it, looked small — and beautiful.
I was especially impressed by the perspective of the three crew members who suggested to Commander Wiseman that they name a newly observed crater “Carroll,” in memory and honor of Wiseman’s wife, who had died six years earlier.
As I continued to reflect, the flight gradually reminded me of the excitement I felt in the 1960s, beginning with John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in January 1961, when I was 15, and his idea of a “New Frontier.” This was followed a few months later by his address to Congress when he boldly predicted that the United States would land a man on the moon before the decade was over.
It took a number of years for NASA to move forward on this. Eventually, in 1968, with the Apollo missions, Kennedy’s prediction was coming true.
In October of 1968 I saw Americans, including Wally Schirra, successfully launched into space and circling the earth.
In December of 1968 American astronauts, including James Lovell, circled not just the earth but the moon.
And then in July of 1969, Americans, including Neil Armstrong, walked on the moon. Kennedy’s promise had been fulfilled (although he was not alive to see it).
There is a coda to my space flight memories. In the mid-1970s, astronaut James Lovell went on a speaking tour, including an engagement in Los Banos, sponsored by the Los Banos Campus of Merced College.
At that time, community colleges were able to levy a very small tax which helped pay for events that benefited the whole community, and Merced College, including the Los Banos Campus, benefited from that.
It was 1976, I believe, when I was 31 and young enough to take on any mission, when the campus dean, Ted McVey, asked me if I would pick up Lovell at the airport and bring him to Los Banos.
I picked up James Lovell at the San Jose airport, drove him to Los Banos a few hours before he was scheduled to speak and provided for him a spaghetti dinner in our modest home, thanks to my wife Susan. James Lovell sat around the kitchen table with Susan and me and our two young children, Ginny and Mike.
He was gracious and appreciative of this simple gesture and engaged us in a lively conversation. After dinner we drove him a few blocks to the Henry Miller School auditorium, at that time the best venue in Los Banos for an event like this, and heard him speak in detail about his Apollo 8 lunar mission.
Somehow all of that came back on April 10, 2026, when on a late Friday afternoon, I, like many other Americans, watched the space capsule with the astronauts return to earth. This time it was not Apollo, but his twin sister in Greek mythology, Artemis.
I was a little nervous. I was aware of the danger of space flight, thinking back to the deaths of three American astronauts in 1967, then in 1986 when teacher Christa McAuliffe and six other crew members died when the space shuttle broke apart soon after takeoff and most recently in 2003 when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated when it reentered the earth’s atmosphere, killing seven crew members.
So I felt relief when I saw the Artemis II space capsule splash down safely, with all four astronauts in good health. And I felt elation and pride.
It was a good day to be an American.
John Spevak’s email is john.spevak@gmail.com
