As the Artemis 2 mission unfolded in April, I found myself glued to NASA’s YouTube stream, in every room of our home. There were plenty of exciting events, from launch to lunar flyby to splashdown. But for me, the most thrilling moments weren’t what we saw. It was what we heard when the crew reacted to those sights: the farside of the Moon, a total solar eclipse, our own home planet. Their joyous exclamations were exhilarating. They reminded me of the same wonder I’ve heard when people look through a telescope and see the Moon or Saturn’s rings for the first time.
That’s the wonderful thing about space. It’s not just something we watch others explore — we can join in from our backyards. We can place our eyes in a stream of photons that, having traveled millions of light-years, end their journeys on our retinas, leaving an impression in our minds. With mirrors and an eyepiece, we can forge our own connection with the cosmos.
