‘Howl at the Moon’: NASA’s bid to boost space enthusiasm
By AFP
April 11, 2026
This handout picture released on April 7, 2026, by NASA shows crescent Earth setting along the Moon's limb, as seen from the Orion spacecraft on April 6, 2026 - Copyright NASA/AFP Handout
Maggy DONALDSON
When NASA flight director Zebulon Scoville was working a shift during the uncrewed Artemis I test flight, he realized the US space agency wasn’t consistently livestreaming the spacecraft’s journey to Earth.
“They said, well, we don’t have bandwidth, we’ve got to get all this vehicle and engineering data down,” Scoville recalled. “I was like — wrong.”
“This program will be over if people don’t buy it and they don’t come with us.”
NASA eventually got a low-bandwidth live stream up for that 2022 uncrewed mission.
And once it was over, senior officials named the NASA veteran “imagery czar” to boost engagement.
He told AFP he spent two years working across the agency to figure out how better to take the public on NASA’s new Moon missions.
That included adding an optical communications system onto the Orion spacecraft, a laser that transmitted to a ground station on Earth, sending streaming video in higher resolution.
Throughout the more than nine-day Artemis II crewed test flight — which ended Friday with an emotional splashdown off the California coast — NASA has maintained live programming on its own streaming platform and across social media.
That, combined with third-party streamers and broadcast news, has earned millions of views.
And as NASA official Lori Glaze said Friday: “To all of our new followers out there, please stay tuned.”
– NASA on Twitch –
From social media posts clipped from livestreamed events with the astronauts to an extraordinary portfolio of celestial photographs, viewers caught an eyeful of Artemis II.
Insitutions including museums held Artemis splashdown parties, and some teachers integrated the launch into their lessons.
Alex Roethler, a Wisconsin physics teacher, said watching the mission helped his students get “more engaged,” and made lessons “feel more real.”
“I love having the livestream available, and I also think it’s cool that they use Twitch,” Roethler said, referring to a video streamer site favored by gamers. “That is a platform more of our students use.”
The crew themselves have been integral to the storytelling.
During the nearly seven-hour lunar flyby, astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen and Reid Weisman gave near-literary descriptions of lunar surface features and left scientists in Houston awe-struck.
With Artemis II, there have been “just smiles and actually showing emotion through NASA, where we have sometimes had a history of being a little bit dry,” Scoville said.
“It’s okay to jump up and down and howl at the moon,” he added.
– Apollo-Artemis parallels –
Before Artemis II, the United States hadn’t sent astronauts around the Moon since 1972 for the Apollo 17 mission — the last of that famed space program that saw humans walk on the lunar surface.
In the lead-up to the 10-day test flight, NASA faced both a blase populace and a fractured media environment.
The space agency had to battle for attention across traditional and social media in a way the three-TV-channel era of Apollo never experienced. The Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969 saw approximately one-fifth of the global population tune in.
Yet for all the mythical qualities of Apollo, Jack Kiraly, director of government relations at the Planetary Society, said “nostalgia” perhaps “glosses over some of the issues that the program at the time faced.”
“Everything that led up to that was actually broadly unpopular with the American electorate, with the public writ large,” Kiraly told AFP.
Still, even with that in account, the analyst said “I don’t think this moment is living up to the hype” of most Apollo missions, and added he hopes NASA’s communications strategies continue to improve.
– ‘Longing for something good’ –
Ahead of Artemis II, Scoville had conversations with mission commander Reid Wiseman in which they reflected on parallels between the Apollo 8 lunar mission and this most recent Moon flyby.
The United States in 1968 was politically fractured and at war.
Nearly 60 years later, not so much has changed.
“We’re watching the news today, with wars, with division, and, like, how much everyone is just so longing for something good to happen,” Scoville said.
In a recent space-to-Earth press conference, Wiseman said their only news source during the mission was their families, who said Artemis has captivated people worldwide, though he admitted they are “biased.”
Wiseman said he hoped the trip could “have the world pause” to take in the beauty of our planet and universe.
“I think for the folks that decided to tune in — and it sounds like it was quite a few — this has happened,” he said.
Throughout their journey, all four astronauts emphasized how unified Earth looks from afar — a takeaway they hoped would permeate public consciousness.
“People are wanting to reach out to their inner rocket nerds,” Scoville said. “This is just a glimpse of what’s to come.”
After Artemis II, NASA looks to SpaceX, Blue Origin for Moon landings
By AFP
April 11, 2026
NASA official Lori Glaze says after Artemis II returns to Earth that 'all of industry' needs to work toward Moon landing - Copyright AFP RONALDO SCHEMIDT
Charlotte CAUSIT
With Artemis II successfully completing its historic lunar mission on Friday, NASA is banking on billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk for the next step: landing astronauts on the Moon.
The Apollo program — which sent the first and only humans to the Moon’s surface between 1969 and 1972 — was designed so that only two astronauts could land on the lunar surface for a maximum of a few days.
More than 50 years later, American ambitions and expertise have grown, with NASA hoping to send four people on a mission lasting several weeks and eventually building a lunar base.
For the second phase of its mission, the space agency is looking to commercial landers designed by Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’s Blue Origin to get its astronauts on the Moon.
After Artemis II splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday after its record-breaking journey, NASA officials urged all hands on deck for a crewed landing in 2028.
“We need all of industry to work and come along with us, and they need to accept that challenge and come with us and really start the production lines that are going to be required in order to achieve that goal,” Lori Glaze, the acting associate NASA administrator, told a press conference.
The Apollo program relied on a single rocket, the Saturn V, which carried both the lunar lander and the capsule carrying the astronauts.
NASA has opted for two separate systems for Artemis: the first to launch the Orion spacecraft carrying the crew from Earth, and another to launch the lunar lander, which will be privately contracted.
– ‘Camping trip’ –
The decision was driven by the technical limitations of the Apollo program, Kent Chojnacki, a senior NASA official in charge of lunar lander development, told AFP.
“It was very not expandable to long-term exploration and long-term stays,” he explained.
Although spectacular, the Apollo missions were like “camping trips,” said Jack Kiraly, director of government relations at the Planetary Society, which encourages space exploration.
The systems NASA is looking at now are “huge compared to Apollo,” said Chojnacki, noting that the new lunar landers being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX are two to seven times larger than before.
The space agency is also drawing from external partners, such as the European companies that built the propulsion module for Orion.
The new approach opens access to more equipment and resources, but also significantly complicates operations.
To send these giant spacecrafts to the Moon, the private space exploration companies will need to master in-flight refueling, a complex maneuver that has not yet been fully tested.
After the lunar lander is launched, additional rockets will be needed to deliver the fuel required for the journey to the Moon, some 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Earth.
– ‘Lose the Moon’ –
Given this risky undertaking and the numerous delays — particularly those experienced by SpaceX that was supposed to have its lander ready first — pressure has mounted in recent months.
“We are once again about to lose the Moon,” three former NASA officials warned in an article in SpaceNews last September.
China, which is hoping to send humans to the Moon by 2030, has been making progress as well, raising fears in the Trump administration that the United States could get left behind.
With that in mind, NASA raised the possibility last fall of reopening the contract awarded to SpaceX and using Blue Origin’s lunar lander first, sending shockwaves through the rival companies.
Both firms announced they were realigning their strategies to prioritize the lunar project — and keep their lucrative contracts with NASA.
But concerns remain, particularly regarding the feasibility of in-orbit refueling.
“We do have a plan,” Chojnacki said, noting that NASA has a back-up plan in case of failure.
The timeline is also up in the air.
NASA says it plans to test an in-orbit rendezvous between the spacecraft and one or two lunar landers in 2027, and carry out a crewed lunar landing in 2028.
Before that, companies will need to test in-orbit refueling and send an unmanned lunar lander to the Moon to demonstrate its safety.
That all needs to happen within the next two years.
“It feels like a very small amount of time,” said Clayton Swope of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Faith has always gone to space. Artemis II shows how much it has changed.
(RNS) — Both Apollo 8 and Artemis II missions included public references to religion, but astronauts aboard the Artemis’ Orion spacecraft struck a broader, more global tone.
NASA’s Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Jack Jenkins
April 7, 2026
RELATED: Vatican astrophysicists offer new way of studying gravity after the big bang
But for all their similarities, the four astronauts participating in the Artemis II mission have collectively showcased a broader, more pluralistic approach to public religious expression than the three men who rode aboard Apollo 8. It’s a subtle change that showcases NASA’s evolving relationship to public displays of faith, a tonal shift that likely traces its origins to the legal challenges that followed the reading of Genesis aboard the lunar module back in 1968.
Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, right, speaks about the role of Easter and the importance of unity across beliefs on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026, from inside the Orion spacecraft. (Video screen grab)
Much of the God-talk on the Artemis mission has centered on Glover, who is also the most publicly religious astronaut on the mission. He reportedly brought a Bible along with him for the 10-day journey in space, which is something he’s done before: He told The Christian Chronicle in 2020 that he had a Bible and Communion cups sent to the International Space Station in preparation for his arrival aboard a Space X capsule in November of that year. At the time, Glover suggested he planned to worship virtually with his church while in orbit, as he had been doing throughout the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
NASA officials did not offer a direct response when asked by Religion News Service if Glover or other Artemis II astronauts have made special arrangements to worship while aboard the Orion capsule. But Glover did offer some public religious reflection while hurtling toward the moon over the weekend, when CBS reporter Mark Strassmann asked him to comment on the journey’s overlap with Easter.
“When I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created, it’s you have this amazing place, this spaceship. You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe and the cosmos,” Glover said.
He added that whether listeners “believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that … we got to get through this together.”
A similar sentiment was expressed a few days before the astronauts blasted off from Earth. A reporter in the press pool asked the astronauts about traveling to the moon during Easter. Reid Wiseman, Artemis II’s commander, and the two other astronauts — Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — all glanced over to Glover, who said something inaudible that sparked a chuckle among the group.
Wiseman then stepped forward and acknowledged the legacy of Apollo 8, gearing his answer to a multireligious audience.
“We have our own different opinions, our own individual opinions and our own individual beliefs,” he said, gesturing to his fellow astronauts. “I think that’s one of the best parts about this mission right now: As we have said from the beginning, we really are for all, by all, and we want to take the whole world along with us.”
Wiseman then referenced Ramadan — “we just came out of a very important Muslim holiday” — noting that it ended less than a month before Easter.
“I think that that’s great — that we celebrate all of this all the way around the world,” he said.
It’s a different tone than the one struck by astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 mission.
Apollo 8 astronaut Jim Lovell speaks during an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of his 1968 space mission at the Washington National Cathedral, Dec. 11, 2018. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
Whereas Artemis II shot past the moon only once before heading back to Earth, the Apollo 8 mission entered into lunar orbit, circling Earth’s satellite multiple times over the course of 20 hours. As the astronauts rounded the planet for the ninth time, all three astronauts — William Anders (a Catholic at the time), Jim Lovell (Presbyterian) and Frank Borman (Episcopalian) — took turns reading from the Book of Genesis on a broadcast, reciting verses 1-10 from the King James translation of the Bible. The men read from the mission’s flight manual, where the Scripture passages had been printed after Christine Laitin suggested them to her husband, a government official assisting with the mission.
“From the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth,” Borman said.
Fifty years later, Lovell reflected on the moment while addressing a crowd at the Washington National Cathedral.
“I arrived on a planet with a proper mass to have the gravity to retain water and an atmosphere — the essentials for life. I arrived on a planet orbiting a star at just the right distance to absorb that star’s energy,” he said. “In my mind, the answer was clear: God gave mankind a stage on which to perform. How the play ends is up to us.”
That broadcast prompted a lawsuit from atheist activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who argued it violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause. Although the U.S. Supreme Court eventually threw out the case due to “want of jurisdiction” — presumably referring to space — historians have long argued the lawsuit had a lasting impact on NASA, as astronauts were effectively discouraged from openly engaging in worship or religious activity during a mission.
Many point to Buzz Aldrin, who celebrated Communion on the moon shortly before walking out onto the lunar surface, but waited more than a year before commenting on the moment publicly.
The Artemis II crew captured this view of an Earthset on April 6, 2026, as they flew around the moon. (Photo courtesy of NASA)
In the intervening years, it has become common for astronauts to speak publicly about religious practices that occurred during their missions, even as the space-farers and NASA have taken pains to avoid giving a specific faith tradition center stage as on Apollo 8. Bibles were brought to the moon and returned in the Apollo era, and Christians of several varieties brought crucifixes, icons and other religious symbols with them aboard various rockets. Teams of Islamic scholars were convened to help guide Muslim astronauts who wanted to pray and maintain their religious observance while orbiting Earth on the International Space Station — including during Ramadan. Jewish astronauts have brought Torah scrolls aboard the space shuttles, with one reading from Genesis while in orbit.
Sometimes religious expression can be more subtle. Aboard the Artemis II, the personal mission patch worn by Canadian astronaut Hansen includes references to spirituality embraced by Indigenous communities he has spent time with. According to the Canadian government, his patch, which was designed by Anishinaabe artist Henry Guimond, includes a representation of the “Seven Sacred Laws, a traditional First Nations teaching shared with (Hansen) in preparation for his journey around Grandmother Moon.”
But while religious ritual is space is common, the profundity of a moon mission appears to have inspired Artemis astronauts to broaden their public religious appeals. It’s an approach that may be drawn from the wisdom of past astronauts: Wiseman’s desire to “take the whole world along with us” is reminiscent of Aldrin’s thoughts on his moon Communion. In his 2010 memoir, he explained he now envisions major space missions as something for all people — be they religious or otherwise.
“We had come to space in the name of all mankind — be they Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, agnostics, or atheists,” Aldrin wrote. “But at the time I could think of no better way to acknowledge the Apollo 11 experience than by giving thanks to God.”
(RNS) — Both Apollo 8 and Artemis II missions included public references to religion, but astronauts aboard the Artemis’ Orion spacecraft struck a broader, more global tone.
NASA’s Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Jack Jenkins
April 7, 2026
RNS
(RNS) — On Monday (April 6), NASA astronauts finally were about to commence Artemis II’s flyby of the moon, the first such close observance of Earth’s satellite in nearly 60 years. The four astronauts had spent days on the Orion spacecraft, hurtling toward the moon, and they were about to travel farther away from Earth than any human being in history.
But moments before the crew would enter into roughly 40 minutes of radio silence as they passed behind the moon, the voice of astronaut Victor Glover — who has been open about his Christian faith and worships at Churches of Christ congregations in Texas — crackled over the broadcast channel to offer a message of love.
“As we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth — and that’s love,” said Glover. “Christ said, in response to what was the greatest command, that it was to love God with all that you are. And he also, being a great teacher, said this: ‘I give you equal to it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Glover added: “And so, as we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still able to feel your love from Earth and to all of you down there on Earth, and around the Earth, we love you from the moon.”
The spiritual appeal recalled perhaps one of the most widely broadcast moments of religious expression: the 1968 Apollo 8 mission, when three astronauts read from Genesis on live television as they, too, orbited the moon. Both missions also happened to coincide with religious holidays: Apollo 8 circled the moon on Christmas Eve, and the 10-day Artemis II mission overlapped with the Christian celebration of Easter and the Jewish holiday of Passover.
(RNS) — On Monday (April 6), NASA astronauts finally were about to commence Artemis II’s flyby of the moon, the first such close observance of Earth’s satellite in nearly 60 years. The four astronauts had spent days on the Orion spacecraft, hurtling toward the moon, and they were about to travel farther away from Earth than any human being in history.
But moments before the crew would enter into roughly 40 minutes of radio silence as they passed behind the moon, the voice of astronaut Victor Glover — who has been open about his Christian faith and worships at Churches of Christ congregations in Texas — crackled over the broadcast channel to offer a message of love.
“As we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth — and that’s love,” said Glover. “Christ said, in response to what was the greatest command, that it was to love God with all that you are. And he also, being a great teacher, said this: ‘I give you equal to it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Glover added: “And so, as we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still able to feel your love from Earth and to all of you down there on Earth, and around the Earth, we love you from the moon.”
The spiritual appeal recalled perhaps one of the most widely broadcast moments of religious expression: the 1968 Apollo 8 mission, when three astronauts read from Genesis on live television as they, too, orbited the moon. Both missions also happened to coincide with religious holidays: Apollo 8 circled the moon on Christmas Eve, and the 10-day Artemis II mission overlapped with the Christian celebration of Easter and the Jewish holiday of Passover.
RELATED: Vatican astrophysicists offer new way of studying gravity after the big bang
But for all their similarities, the four astronauts participating in the Artemis II mission have collectively showcased a broader, more pluralistic approach to public religious expression than the three men who rode aboard Apollo 8. It’s a subtle change that showcases NASA’s evolving relationship to public displays of faith, a tonal shift that likely traces its origins to the legal challenges that followed the reading of Genesis aboard the lunar module back in 1968.
Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, right, speaks about the role of Easter and the importance of unity across beliefs on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026, from inside the Orion spacecraft. (Video screen grab)
Much of the God-talk on the Artemis mission has centered on Glover, who is also the most publicly religious astronaut on the mission. He reportedly brought a Bible along with him for the 10-day journey in space, which is something he’s done before: He told The Christian Chronicle in 2020 that he had a Bible and Communion cups sent to the International Space Station in preparation for his arrival aboard a Space X capsule in November of that year. At the time, Glover suggested he planned to worship virtually with his church while in orbit, as he had been doing throughout the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
NASA officials did not offer a direct response when asked by Religion News Service if Glover or other Artemis II astronauts have made special arrangements to worship while aboard the Orion capsule. But Glover did offer some public religious reflection while hurtling toward the moon over the weekend, when CBS reporter Mark Strassmann asked him to comment on the journey’s overlap with Easter.
“When I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created, it’s you have this amazing place, this spaceship. You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe and the cosmos,” Glover said.
He added that whether listeners “believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that … we got to get through this together.”
A similar sentiment was expressed a few days before the astronauts blasted off from Earth. A reporter in the press pool asked the astronauts about traveling to the moon during Easter. Reid Wiseman, Artemis II’s commander, and the two other astronauts — Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — all glanced over to Glover, who said something inaudible that sparked a chuckle among the group.
Wiseman then stepped forward and acknowledged the legacy of Apollo 8, gearing his answer to a multireligious audience.
“We have our own different opinions, our own individual opinions and our own individual beliefs,” he said, gesturing to his fellow astronauts. “I think that’s one of the best parts about this mission right now: As we have said from the beginning, we really are for all, by all, and we want to take the whole world along with us.”
Wiseman then referenced Ramadan — “we just came out of a very important Muslim holiday” — noting that it ended less than a month before Easter.
“I think that that’s great — that we celebrate all of this all the way around the world,” he said.
It’s a different tone than the one struck by astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 mission.
Apollo 8 astronaut Jim Lovell speaks during an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of his 1968 space mission at the Washington National Cathedral, Dec. 11, 2018. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
Whereas Artemis II shot past the moon only once before heading back to Earth, the Apollo 8 mission entered into lunar orbit, circling Earth’s satellite multiple times over the course of 20 hours. As the astronauts rounded the planet for the ninth time, all three astronauts — William Anders (a Catholic at the time), Jim Lovell (Presbyterian) and Frank Borman (Episcopalian) — took turns reading from the Book of Genesis on a broadcast, reciting verses 1-10 from the King James translation of the Bible. The men read from the mission’s flight manual, where the Scripture passages had been printed after Christine Laitin suggested them to her husband, a government official assisting with the mission.
“From the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth,” Borman said.
Fifty years later, Lovell reflected on the moment while addressing a crowd at the Washington National Cathedral.
“I arrived on a planet with a proper mass to have the gravity to retain water and an atmosphere — the essentials for life. I arrived on a planet orbiting a star at just the right distance to absorb that star’s energy,” he said. “In my mind, the answer was clear: God gave mankind a stage on which to perform. How the play ends is up to us.”
That broadcast prompted a lawsuit from atheist activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who argued it violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause. Although the U.S. Supreme Court eventually threw out the case due to “want of jurisdiction” — presumably referring to space — historians have long argued the lawsuit had a lasting impact on NASA, as astronauts were effectively discouraged from openly engaging in worship or religious activity during a mission.
Many point to Buzz Aldrin, who celebrated Communion on the moon shortly before walking out onto the lunar surface, but waited more than a year before commenting on the moment publicly.
The Artemis II crew captured this view of an Earthset on April 6, 2026, as they flew around the moon. (Photo courtesy of NASA)
In the intervening years, it has become common for astronauts to speak publicly about religious practices that occurred during their missions, even as the space-farers and NASA have taken pains to avoid giving a specific faith tradition center stage as on Apollo 8. Bibles were brought to the moon and returned in the Apollo era, and Christians of several varieties brought crucifixes, icons and other religious symbols with them aboard various rockets. Teams of Islamic scholars were convened to help guide Muslim astronauts who wanted to pray and maintain their religious observance while orbiting Earth on the International Space Station — including during Ramadan. Jewish astronauts have brought Torah scrolls aboard the space shuttles, with one reading from Genesis while in orbit.
Sometimes religious expression can be more subtle. Aboard the Artemis II, the personal mission patch worn by Canadian astronaut Hansen includes references to spirituality embraced by Indigenous communities he has spent time with. According to the Canadian government, his patch, which was designed by Anishinaabe artist Henry Guimond, includes a representation of the “Seven Sacred Laws, a traditional First Nations teaching shared with (Hansen) in preparation for his journey around Grandmother Moon.”
But while religious ritual is space is common, the profundity of a moon mission appears to have inspired Artemis astronauts to broaden their public religious appeals. It’s an approach that may be drawn from the wisdom of past astronauts: Wiseman’s desire to “take the whole world along with us” is reminiscent of Aldrin’s thoughts on his moon Communion. In his 2010 memoir, he explained he now envisions major space missions as something for all people — be they religious or otherwise.
“We had come to space in the name of all mankind — be they Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, agnostics, or atheists,” Aldrin wrote. “But at the time I could think of no better way to acknowledge the Apollo 11 experience than by giving thanks to God.”
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