Artemis II - We are Headed to the Moon
MetaFleurs in Outer Space, Digital Art by Ashley Greer
Article Submitted for publication with Home Photots
We have lift off!
Alexandrian neighbors and friends gather in homes, shops and bars to watch live broadcasts as America sends Astronauts back to the moon!
Future Starwalker Ashley Greer at Goddard Space Flight Center
For the first time since 1972, Nasa has successfully completed the first phase of the Artemis II moonshot launch sending four astronauts Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen rocketing past low Earth orbit and into outer space.
Note: Artemis II is a four part mission, and Orion is the actual Spacecraft vehicle.
The goal of phase one is to test Orion’s performance in space and ensure it can safely handle humans before returning for the moon landing, walking, and building missions.
Discovery Spaceship at Udvar-Hazey Museum
Orion is to orbit Earth twice after launch to test systems before performing a trans-lunar injection to go to the Moon. After orbiting the Moon, the crew will return in the Orion capsule, protected by a heat shield, aiming for a Pacific Ocean splashdown. The entire voyage is expected to take place over a 10 day span.
While blast off took place at Kennedy Space Station on Merritt Island, Florida, 849 miles from Alexandria, our community has deep and personal ties to aeronautical technology and astronauts.
You have only to pull up a barstool or chat with someone on the street and they will tell you their personal connection to NASA, Space Tech, or their deeply personal and present memory of the Challenger tragedy in 1986.
One of the four astronauts, Navy Captain Victor Glover, is a local legend for famously participating in a 2020 Live Science Lesson from space for students from our very own Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy in Old Town Alexandria.
Student Andras Jacobson queried, “Do your muscles act differently in Space?” to which Glover explained that the lack of body weight makes movement, such as doing somersaults, feel entirely different.
MoonRock Window at National Gallery
Also, in a December 2020 interview in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Victor Glover called on students to express teamwork through art.
“We ask that you join us in our commitment to excellence, teamwork, and communication. All teams need diverse members in terms of their backgrounds, skill sets, and ways of thinking. So, I’m asking all of you to come together to complete a project about teamwork. I want you to show me what teamwork looks like in your life. Whether it’s on a sports team, at your school, or in your community, but I want you to do it through art. The arts allow us to uniquely express ourselves and connect with one another in new and exciting ways. Coming together through the arts can help us create a better and more beautiful world.” - Victor Glover
Lyles-Crouch students have participated in this Victor Glover and Alma Thomas (A Washington DC Artist known for her artworks inspired by light and Space) inspired art project since then with collage dash painting lining the schools halls.
Outerspace could be said to “orbit” Alexandria with The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., Steven F. Udvar-Hazey center in Chantilly, Virginia, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland all within a one hour drive from our city limits.
As of the time of the writing of this article, the Artemis II mission is scheduled to land back on Earth Friday, April 10th splashing down somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
Ashley Greer at NASA Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Maryland