Seeing the Dark Side of the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II Mission

In April, the four crew members of NASA’s Artemis II mission were the first humans to ever glimpse something that cannot be seen from Earth—the so-called dark side of the moon. The mission’s commander, the former Navy captain Reid Wiseman, is fifty years old, which also makes him the oldest person ever to travel beyond low Earth orbit. Wiseman sat down recently with the New Yorker contributor David W. Brown. They talked about the challenge of NASA returning to the moon after many decades, Wiseman’s struggle to parent his two daughters while training, and the strangeness and beauty of returning to Earth. “One thing that really did surprise me was how quickly Earth gets so small out the window,” Wiseman explains. “It’s like a fingernail, almost; the size of a quarter. It’s just impossibly tiny out there. There’s a little tiny super-bright crescent of an Earth.” 

Further reading and listening: 

• “The Leader of NASA’s Artemis II Mission Is Still Moonstruck,” by David W. Brown
• “What Will the Artemis II Moon Mission Teach Us?,” by David W. Brown
• “A New Era of Moon Exploration Is Upon Us,” by David W. Brown

 

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