From Apollo’s Light To Artemis’s Shadow

Forty-one minutes. No telemetry, no voices, no way to help. That’s what it feels like when a crewed spacecraft slips behind the Moon and the signal dies, even in 2026. We sit with that fear and awe, then pull the camera back to ask a bigger question: how did the Moon go from a goddess in a silver chariot to a world we’re actively planning to live on again?

We start in myth, with Selene and Luna as the Moon embodied, tied to tides, time, love, and cycles. Then we jump to the giant impact hypothesis, the idea that a Mars-sized body slammed into early Earth and left behind the debris that became our Moon. From there, it’s Apollo: Sputnik panic, Kennedy’s gamble, the brutal lessons of Apollo 1, the near-movie chaos of Apollo 11’s landing, and the long list of missions that proved we could do it again and again.

Then comes the part everyone keeps asking: why did we stop going? We talk budgets, Vietnam, public boredom, Cold War symbolism, and the uncomfortable truth that canceling Saturn V meant we didn’t just pause, we lost capability. Finally, we bring it to Artemis, where the goal is the lunar south pole, water ice, Gateway, and a real path toward Mars. Along the way we break down Artemis 2’s crew, flight plan, far-side blackout, and the emotional “torch passing” moment that made Heather cry.

Subscribe, share this with your favorite space nerd, and leave a review. What would you do with 41 minutes of silence behind the Moon?

Transcript

Welcome And Weekend Catch-Up

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Two best friends, we're talking fast. We're missing two arcades, we're having a blast. Seeing these dreams, we on screens, it was all bad. Oh like you know, it's like whatever. Never never never laughing, sharing, our story forever. We'll say you got like whatever.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

Welcome to Like Whatever, a podcast for, by, and about your next. I'm Nicole, and this is maybe FFF Heather. Hello. So we think we're gonna be a little boring this morning. Or not this morning. Oh dear God. It's the afternoon. It is the afternoon, but today. Today. Because we both sat here and went through our weekend. We have been super duper boring this week. Very, very super boring. I worked, I did not work, I went to sleep, and I redid it every day. Yeah, and I didn't have to work as much, but still nothing super exciting. So um I did watch a good show. Um something very bad is going to happen. I said duh. Yeah, it's on Netflix. It's uh kind of like a horror suspense eight episode series. And reality. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was pretty interesting if anyone's interested in that. Um, yeah, nothing really happening in the news. I mean, one thing happened in the news, but we're gonna get into that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One very big thing happened in the news. But besides.

SPEAKER_06 1:42

That's pretty much been my entire week. This is this is a heads up. Normally this is Nicole's week. Oh, yeah. But I asked him to usurp her week. Yes. For uh a very I'm gonna try to get through it without crying. I was unsuccessful at that yesterday.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:05

Uh but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

Yeah. I've I've heard that's that's the the feeling for a lot of people though. I've heard a lot of news anchors and scientists and just observers say that they've cried.

SPEAKER_06 2:18

So I mean, people haven't been over there in my lifetime, so nope. It's pretty fucking cool. Plus, I'm a big space nerd. Yep.

Moon Myths And Ancient Meaning

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Yep. So now that you've all guessed, um, what we're gonna talk about this week. It is Heather's week this week again. And she said she has a long script because she is a nerd. Yes, I am. And so I'm just gonna ask you to like, share, rate, review. Please. Check us out on the socials. Please. Uh, listen to us where you like get podcasts. Yes. Visit our website at www.likewhateverpod.com and send us an email at likewateverpod at gmail.com. Correct. All right.

SPEAKER_06 3:03

My script is 4,995 words. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:08

That's usually where my scripts are once I kind of throw stuff together, and then I have to go through and like take a lot out to make it work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:17

So well, we got a lot of ground to cover.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

We do, and it's all good.

SPEAKER_06 3:20

It's we're gonna buckle up, kids. We're gonna get all kinds of lessons today from the nerd Heather. I love it. As we fuck around and find out about the moon. Ta-da! I don't know if y'all knew. What's up there?

SPEAKER_03 3:37

Not made of cheese. It was the big thing in the news this week in case y'all didn't catch it. Spoiler alert.

SPEAKER_06 3:46

I watched TV yesterday. All day. Yeah. I well, I was I had yesterday, I knew that the press the coverage was gonna start at a certain time, and then I was working, so I was mad, and I hadn't gotten the itinerary yet. And then when I got home, I was like, oh shoo. I didn't miss it. Yeah, yeah. Plenty of time.

unknown 4:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:10

So here we go. Okay. In Greek and Roman mythology, and yeah, we're going back that fucking bar. Guess what? We're gonna go back further. Ooh. Yeah. We're gonna it's gonna be some lesson in today.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

I love it, love it, love it.

SPEAKER_06 4:26

In Greek and Roman mythology, the moon wasn't a rock born from cosmic violence, it was a divine presence, a luminous being with personality, power, and lineage. Instead of a single origin story, the moon's existence was explained through gods, goddesses, and celestial family drama. The Greek version, the moon was goddess named Selena. She was just associated wasn't just associated with the moon, she embodied it. Selena was the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Thea, making her literally born from the forces of illumination and vision. Every night she drove her glowing silver chariot across the sky, pulled by white horses and bulls, lighting the world with her radiance. Her origin wasn't a creation event, it was a birthright. She existed because the cosmos needed a lunar presence, a counterbalance to her brother Helios, the sun. Together they structured time, day and night, order and rhythm. Selena's most famous myth involves her love for an Endymion, a mortal shepherd. She begged Zeus to grant him eternal sleep so she could visit him forever. This story explained the moon's nightly cycles on Selena's descending from the sky to watch over her beloved. The Roman version, Luna, the divine moon, the Romans adopted Selena and renamed her Luna, but kept her essential nature, a goddess who was the moon. Luna was worshipped as a protector of women, cycles, tides, and time. Her temple stood on the Aventine and Palatine hills, and she was often paired with soul, the sun, and Aurora, the dawn. Romans didn't focus on a creation myth for Luna. Instead, they emphasized her cosmic function. She governed the night, influenced fertility, and marked the passage of months. Her waxing and waning were seen as signs of divine power, renewal, and celestial order. Um the shared myths. I mean, I think we can all go. It's myths, guys. Okay, we all just get along. Um across both cultures, the moon wasn't an object, it was a being, um, born from Titans, driving a chariot across the sky, embodied as a goddess of light, cycles, and emotion, linked to love, dreams, and the boundary between mortal and divine. And here's my thing about wait, hold on. The Greeks and Romans didn't ask how the moon formed, they asked who she was, and the answer was always the same. She was Selena, she was Luna, she was the moon, made divine. And I always find it funny, not funny, but the the things that the moon represents really is what she does. I mean it really is.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

It's funny too to think like what their perspective was back then. Right. To like to say it was a chariot, like not realizing.

SPEAKER_06 7:31

Well, I know I know that the sun was pulled by a chariot and brought up. Yeah. I didn't I didn't realize the moon was too.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

Yeah, yeah. I didn't either, but I'm pretty sure they didn't realize how big those beings were, wouldn't they? Well, I mean they But they wouldn't have known how big the earth was. No. They had very limited till later, yeah. Yeah.

The Giant Impact Moon Origin

Apollo Begins With Sputnik Fear

SPEAKER_06 7:52

Yeah, it's crazy. But I mean that's and that's my thing of it. Like they didn't understand how how tides happened, but they knew the moon had something to do with it. So yeah, yeah. It's very logical. Even if it is spiritual. Even if they just made half of it up. The moon story actually begins in the violent, chaotic infancy of the solar system. That's how fucking far back we're going. About 4.5 billion years ago. When Earth was still a molten, half-formed world surrounded by countless planetary embryos. One of these bodies, a Mars-sized protoplanet, scientists called Thea, drifted into a catastrophic collision, of course, with the young Earth. The impact was apocalyptic. Thea struck Earth off-center, releasing unimaginable energy, vaporizing rock, and blasting molten materials from both bodies into orbit. Instead of drifting away, the debris formed a glowing ring of vaporized stone encircling Earth, a temporary halo of fire and dust. Over thousands to millions of years, that orbiting material cooled, clumped, and accreted accreted. I had to look up how to say that. I've only ever seen that word and never heard it. Um it means slowly gathered together into something larger or gradually forming a single large body, the moon. Early in its life, the moon was covered by a global magma ocean, a molten surface that slowly crystallized into the crust we see today. Um, evidence for the origin comes from lunar rocks brought back from Apollo missions, uh, showing chemical fingerprints nearly identical to the Earth's mantle, suggesting the moon formed from Earth's own material rather than captured or forming independently. Awesome. The moon's low iron content indicates it didn't form from a fully differential differentiated planet, consistent with being made from Earth's outer layer, not a whole separate world. The Earth-Moon system angular momentum matches what we'd expect from a massive glancing collision. Earlier theories that the moon split off from the Earth, formed alongside Earth, or was captured, couldn't explain the combination of chemistry, density, and orbital dynamics. The giant impact hypothesis does. In essence, the moon is Earth's aftermath, a companion born from catastrophe. Oh my god. Catastrophe shaped by fire and stabilized by time. It has influenced Earth ever since, showing our slowing our rotation, stabilizing our tilt, and making life as we know it possible. It's not just a satellite, it's a scar, a memory, and a piece of earth that broke away and never left. Um that's to say. Okay. That was awesome. All that is to say. I'm gonna bring receipts about why it is what it is, and not just say that a chariot brings it. So we know better now.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

If you grew up in the 80s, you remember the music, the malls, the mixtapes. But some of us also remember something else. Feeling alone, feeling unseen, trying to survive things no one should have to survive. My Hearts of Glass book series by Pat Green isn't just a love story set under neon lights. It's about survivors trying to find each other. It's about found family. It's about the kind of love that doesn't fix the past, but helps you build a future. If you've ever needed a reminder that you are not broken, that healing is possible, that love can be safe, come visit the world of Hearts of Glass Living in the Real World, and its sequel, Hearts of Glass Fade Away and Radiate. Find the books, paperback, ebook, or audiobook on PackGreenauthor.com. Because your story did not end in the eighties. It's still being written.

SPEAKER_06 11:58

So the story of Apollo doesn't begin with rockets, it begins with fear, humiliation, and a sky that suddenly felt hostile. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, a polished metal spear the size of a beach ball that beeped its way across the heavens. It was simple, almost primitive by today's standards, but it was enough to shatter American confidence. The U.S. had assumed technological superiority. Sputnik proved otherwise. Then came Laka, the first animal in orbit. Then Gagarin, the first human, then Terishkova, the first woman, which we have discussed before. I don't remember if it was on the space episode or if it was on the you go girls. Um, then the first spacewalk. The Soviets weren't just ahead, but they were winning. The Americas early rockets exploded on live television. The Cold War wasn't abstract anymore, it was overhead. NASA was created in 1958, was a toddler agency asked to run a marathon. On May 25th, 1961, President John F. Kennedy stood before Congress and made a promise that sounded like science fiction. Before this decade is out, we will land a man on the moon and return him safely to the Earth. He didn't say it because it was because America was ready. He said it because America was not ready. The U.S. had flown exactly one astronaut at that point, Alan Shepard, on a 15-minute subordable subordinate. The idea of reaching the moon was absurd, but Kennedy understood something deeper. The moon was a symbol, and symbols win wars of idea ideology. Apollo was born as a geopolitical gamble and it became something far greater. So it's crazy to me, and like I don't know why. I mean, I know why, but Russia was so I mean, of course, back then Russia was like so much ahead of everything because they put all their resources into things. And we're too busy out here being democratic or whatever. Right. So you know, that's what communism does, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

Yeah, but and they're also they were also um super, super secretive about everything.

SPEAKER_06 14:26

So you know that and and we did the same thing. Um when the Nazis disbanded, we'll say. Um the United States took a lot of their scientists, and Russia also took a lot of their scientists. Okay. In um I don't I th I think it's project is it project paperclip? I think it's project paperclip. Both sides took a lot of the Nazi scientists. Okay. It's how we got the it's how how a lot of things happen. But most a lot of it was the space the space race. Is the in exchange for their freedom. Oh. Yeah. Okay. They had to come work for both sides. And, you know, they had free time and all the Naziness to do whatever they wanted. So, you know. Yeah. That part to me is always crazy. Like, I know I got a thing about Nazis too. I just gonna wrap it off. Today is Heather's favorite day topics. Um because I guess they had unfettered. Uh and I don't know. They could do whatever the fuck they wanted. And so they gained a lot of knowledge that I think you couldn't have gotten through being humane. Yeah. Yeah. So I find it a little disturbing, and I mean, I get it. The government does shady shit. I get it. I know, I understand they've always done it, they're always going to do it. Not gonna say anything about today, but you know. Fingers crossed. Yeah. So I get it. And I, you know, it just makes me sometimes makes me very sad that my favorite thing was born out of Nazis.

SPEAKER_03 16:40

Yes, definitely. But at least it didn't go to waste, I guess. That is true. That's a silver lining, maybe.

Apollo Hardware And Apollo 1 Fire

SPEAKER_06 16:50

So to reach the moon, NASA had to invent new materials, new computers, new guidance systems, new fuels, new ways to test. Yeah, new fuels, new ways to test, simulate, and survive. The agency grew from a few thousand employees to four hundred thousand people across the country. Engineers, machinists, mathematicians, seamstresses, test pilots, programmers, and factory workers. Entire industries were created and transformed. The Apollo guidance computer was 64 kilobytes of memory. Was the face first major use of integrated circuits? The Apollo computer, and this is always blowing my mind too, had less power than the thing you carry around every day. Wow. Unbelievable, right? They sent a whole they sent people to the moon, landed on it, and jacked back up with what you carry around today. Just in your pocket.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

Yeah, that is willy-nilly. Pretty mind-blowing. It really that's what I'm trying to say.

SPEAKER_06 17:59

Um, the Saturn V required engines so powerful they shook buildings miles away. The lunar module had to be light enough to fly in one-sixth gravity, yet strong enough to land on an alien surface. Every piece was a moonshot. Like, and even that, like, can you imagine like having to come up with this shit? I am lucky to have just gotten here afterwards. So it was just there, but like this uh it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

It is like having to think about like you don't know what you're landing on. You don't know what it's I mean, up until then.

SPEAKER_06 18:36

It was made out of cheese.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

So, like, is it soft?

SPEAKER_06 18:39

Is it squishy? I mean, they probably had a pretty decent idea, but exactly.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

But are you gonna land in a flat spot? Are you gonna land on jaguar?

SPEAKER_06 18:47

How much math is involved to get to the flat spot?

SPEAKER_03 18:50

Are you gonna land in a crater and just keep going forever and get stuck in the inside of the what isn't the end?

SPEAKER_06 18:54

What's in the middle? What's the juicy center? How many licks does it take to get to the center of the moon? On January 27th, 1967, during a routine plugs out test, the Apollo 1 crew, Gus Grishlam, Ed White, and Roger Chafee, sat us inside sat inside their command module atop the launch pad. A spark ignited the pure oxygen atmosphere. The capsule became an oven, the hatch jammed, the fire consumed everything in seconds, and the nation was horrified. Congress demanded answers, and NASA was gutted. But the tragedy forced a reckoning. Engineers redesigned the spacecraft from the inside out. Safer wiring, non-flammable materials, and a quick release hatch. Better testing protocols.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

Non-flammable is smart.

SPEAKER_06 19:41

Right. I mean, good call. Don't really need to be a rocket science for that. Don't make the rocket flammable when flames have to shoot out of it.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Don't build it out of the nightowns that we wore as children.

SPEAKER_05 19:56

Not a good idea.

SPEAKER_06 20:02

By 1968, the Saturn V stood ready. A 363-foot skyscraper of controlled fury. It was the most powerful machine ever built by humans. When it launched, it produced more power than the entire British Navy. Its spur vibrations rattled bones. Its flames trench glowed like a foundry. The Saturn V wasn't just a rocket, it was a statement. With the lunar landing oh Apollo VI. With the lunar landing behind schedule, NASA made a radical decision. Send Apollo 8 to orbit the moon without a lander, without a backup, without precedent. Frank Foreman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders became the first humans to leave Earth's gravitational well. They saw the far side of the moon, a place no human eyes had ever witnessed. And then Anders took a photograph that changed humanity's self-image. Earthrise, a fragile blue world rising above a dead gray horizon horizon. And did you see I did you did see I don't have to ask you because I showed it to you. This the new Earthrise. And here, let me just say just one second. Let me take a moment. Please. Stop with the fucking it's fake. It's fake. It's fake. Okay. I saw one today that was like, oh look, you can see the earth, but where's all the satellites? There's 15,000, supposed to be 15,000 satellites.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Oh my god. If you're going to try to conflict it at least try to sound educated.

Apollo 11 Landing Chaos

SPEAKER_06 21:42

I mean, I can stand here on the second story and look out and not see a damn ant. It doesn't mean they're not there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Get back to it. Yes. By July 20th, 1969, the world had been holding its breath for eight years. But nothing, not to speeches, not to simulations, not to grainy TV broadcasts, prepared anyone for the sheer chaos of the final descent. This is, of course, Apollo 11. Mm-hmm. Um Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were strapped inside the Eagle, a spacecraft so thin you could punch through parts of its walls. It wasn't sleek, it wasn't elegant. It was a flying file cabinet held together by math and hope. They unlocked from Michael Collins in the command module, and suddenly the two men were alone, falling toward a world no human had ever touched. Then the alarm started. Not one, not two, but a cascade. Um 12 1202 and 1201 codes no one had ever seen in a real mission. The computer was overloading, choking on too much data, threatening to reboot at the worst possible moment. In Houston, engineers scrambled. In the Eagle, Armstrong stayed silent, eyes locked on the readouts. Finally, we're going we're we're go on that alarm. Go. As in, keep descending toward the moon, even though the computer is having a panic attack. The surface came into view and it was all wrong. The landing site NASA had chosen, covered in boulders the size of cars. Yep, that's what I'm talking about. Armstrong looked out the window and realized the autopilot was about to drop them into a field of jagged rocks that was shred the lander like foil. Called it. So he did the unthinkable. He took manual control. The eagle began drifting sideways, burning precious fuel as Armstrong hunted for a flat patch of dust. The descent engine blasted a plume that kicked up a storm of lunar powder, blinding them to the ground. Buzz Aldrin called out numbers like a heartbeat. 30 seconds, 20 seconds. It wasn't just a countdown. That was how much fuel remained before the lander would abort on its own and fling them back into space or crash trying. Oh Lord. Armstrong kept flying. 17 seconds, 15, 13. The dust cleared just enough. A flat patch. Armstrong eased the eagle down, the engine whispering, the fuel nearly gone. Then, contact light, engine stop. Houston, tranquility base here. What did he say? The eagle has landed. And mission control, grown men cried. In living rooms across Earth, people scream, prayed, or simply stared. The world had just watched two humans land on another world with seconds of fuel left and a computer on the verge of collapse.

SPEAKER_03 24:54

I mean, that's nuts. That sounds like a movie. Right? It sounds like the ending to any sports movie, to any disaster movie, to any romantic. You couldn't have scripted it more.

SPEAKER_06 25:10

Like, okay, I get it. You do not want to have any of like when they do these missions now, there is literally no margin of error.

SPEAKER_03 25:19

Oh, yeah. They know what's going to happen every single mil millisecond.

SPEAKER_06 25:22

They can come up with every yes. Could have, would have, may have, like, I think they probably even come up with like if the moon is pulled by a chariot, what should we do?

SPEAKER_03 25:36

And the horses speed up and pull it out of the way.

SPEAKER_06 25:39

What should we they have like it all mapped out? They don't, there's no no surprise.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

Yeah. But back then, yeah, you were like, you jumped in a trash can and said, shoot me in the sky, and let's see what happens.

SPEAKER_06 25:53

Don't get me wrong, they have balls now. Oh, yeah, for sure. The people that do it now do. But back then, when you really did not fucking have a clue what was about to happen to you, and you were in a tin can.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

Yeah. Yeah, like the argument for me with flying in an airplane is there's more cra car crashes and you have more chance to die in a car crash. At least I'm on the ground. I got to be dying. I'm not falling to my death. And these guys are out there, like you could, it's not even falling. You could just float for the rest of eternity.

SPEAKER_06 26:24

You know, it's funny because my work bestie said something, because I guess I rub off on people. And uh he said he had been up all night having panic attacks about space. He saw the the um one of the um spacewalks where they just went out on the little zoomy thing and then came back. And and he was like, he just went. Yeah, he just just went. Yeah. And I was like, yeah. And he was like, Well, what if he couldn't come back? And I was like, That's it. Yes, you're dead. And he was like, Well and I was like, I mean, if it were me, I'd probably pull the space like I'd pull like a hole in the space to I'm not gonna just float around for and choke to death without oxygen or whatever, or freeze to necessarily asteroid volume. That would be you pull a piece of your clothing off and that's the end of it. So it's pretty instantaneous. Yeah, not it's like less than instantaneous. I was like, that's what I would do. And I'm sure that's what they're training. I'm sure that they have Oh yeah a wayout. Yeah. Because you can't just let somebody float. I even I know we have all these movies where they're like, oh, we're gonna come up with a plan. And I I mean, I'm sure they have kind I'm I don't know. I don't work for NASA. They don't let me.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

It would be interesting to talk to an astronaut though, because they would have to think about that. Would you want to float around for a little bit and just kind of take in the sights before you die? Or would you do it quickly so that you don't find out what's happened?

Later Apollo Missions And Why It Ended

SPEAKER_06 27:59

So I know with Columbia, they knew they were gonna die. I mean, it was a very good possible, it was highly likely that they were going to die. Um, but they gave it a go. I mean, what other option do you have? I mean, that's and that's just the thing. There's that, especially then there was no rescue coming for them. No. Now we have them where they're going a little more because we have more launch pads that they can launch from, and we don't have to worry about the shuttle and blah, blah, blah. Uh, Russia sends them up and we send them up. China. Yeah, it's it's it it can be done. Right. Um, and and just was not that long ago. Um but back then, it was you they there it would be months before they could get something else up. And I mean personally, if you sign up to sit on top of a rocket and get shot out into space, you're probably pretty good with dying. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You've come to the end of your yeah. I mean, if I was strapped to a rocket and they shot me out into space, I could die. Yeah if I could see the earth and and and that, like I could yeah, I'd be good. Yeah, I get it. I get it. It's not my thing, but I get it. So I can understand I I would think that they probably have in like the plan Z pile. Like, well, what are we gonna? I'm not just gonna fucking float around forever until you come get me. Like that's right. This is the end, my friend. I'm not gonna die of asphyxiation because that sounds horrible. Um, so um, yeah, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface and said the line that would echo for generations that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. As if you didn't know. Um, the real miracle was that they survived the landing at all. So, four months after Apollo 11, NASA sent Pete Conrad and Alan Bean to the moon. Apollo 12 was swaggering, confident, almost playful, though we can do this on purpose mission. Their goal was to land within walking distance of Surveyor 3, an unmanned probe that had been sitting on the moon for two years. And they nailed it. Conrad landed so close he joked he could hit it with a rock. Apollo 12 proved Apollo 11 wasn't just luck, it was skill. Then came Apollo 13, which I think we might all be familiar with. Spoiler alert. They had a problem. They did. The disaster. Uh April in 1970, two days into the mission, an oxygen tank exploded. Houston, we have a problem. The command module lost power. The crew has used the lunar module as a lifeboat. Temperature dropped and water ran low. Carbon denox carbon dioxide built up. Every system was rigged with duct tape, slide rules, and sheer will. Apollo 13 never reached the moon, but its safe return became one of NASA's greatest triumphs. It also rattled Congress. Suddenly, the moon looked expensive and dangerous. Apollo 14 was redemption. They needed a clean win. Alan Shepard, America's first astronaut, grounded for years by an inner ear disorder, returned to space. He landed on the moon, deployed experiments, and famously hit two golf balls across the lunar surface. Apollo 14 proved the program was still strong, but public interest was fading. Apollo 15, the we the moon gets wheels. It was the first of the J missions. Longer stays, deeper science, more ambitious exploration. They brought the lunar roving vehicle, a battery-powered car that let astronauts travel miles from the lander. They would be so scary too.

SPEAKER_03 31:49

Right? So scary.

SPEAKER_06 31:54

The Genesis Rock, a piece of the moon's primordial crust. For scientists, Apollo 15 was a revelation. Um, but for the public, it barely made the news. So fucking sad. Apollo 16 explored the rugger, rugged lunar highlands, older, more ancient terrain than the smooth Maria. It was scientifically rich but politically invisible. Vietnam dominated the headlines, budgets tightened. NASA was told to wrap it up. Apollo 17 was the last footprint. In December of 1972, the final mission. Apollo 17 carried Harrison Schmidt, the first and only professional scientist to walk on the moon. He and Gene Cernan drove further, stayed longer, and collected more samples than any crew before them. Cernan's favorite final words on the moon were a promise, we shall return. But we didn't. So why we stop? That's my hand up. It wasn't the science or the danger or a lack of ability. And this is the question I have been hearing, I don't even know a million times in the last two weeks. Why do we even stop? Well, Vietnam. Billions were being spent overseas. Congress wanted NASA's budget slashed. People didn't give a fuck anymore. Apollo 15, the people had moved on. Moonwalks were no longer must-CTV. People complained. The missions interrupted their soap operas. It cost too much. It can Apollo consumed 4% of the federal budget at its peak. But by the early 70s, that was a politically impossible. We had already won. Apollo was born as a Cold War competition. Once the U.S. beat the Soviets to the moon, the political motivation evaporated. And Congress wanted to pivot to the space shuttle. A reusable spacecraft, cheaper missions, Earth orbit operations. The moon was seen as a dead end, scientifically rich, but politically irrelevant. The Saturn V died with Apollo. It was the only rocket capable of sending humans to the moon. And it was canceled. No replacement was built. The factories were dismantled. The blueprints were archived. We didn't just stop going. We lost the ability to go. We stopped going to the moon, not because we couldn't go, but because people holding the purse strings decided we shouldn't. Isn't that the fucking way? And that, my friends, is why I have Ted that that the reason, the only way we're getting to Mars is that they have opened up NASA to private companies. And that's the only way you're gonna do it because fuck the government. After Apollo ended in 1972, NASA spent 50 years in low orbit, shuttles, satellites, and space stations and telescomes. But the moon untouched, a ghost of a dream. Let's go back to 1984. Right here will send us to Nicole's diary before we get move into head and time.

unknown 35:08

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

Because I repeat alike, we're laughing through her teenage play. So have your sex and brace your soul.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

Alright, so now we skipped a few days. Um we are at May 7th. It's a Monday in 1984. Um and I wrote Orioles on the Little Girl's Night Count, and I don't know why. Were you big Orioles fans? I don't know. I don't know if it's the birds or the team or my grandma had a friend named Oriole. Like, I don't know. All right. So May 7th. I haven't been writing for a while, and I'm writing tonight because my mom told me to. Oh, well, there you go. I was working on my report. There we go. More homework. I know. That's all I did. Uh and it's and projects tonight, because I didn't have any homework. Oh, so I was working on future projects. Nerd. I was getting caught up on the ones because it didn't have any homework. Nerd. And my mom gave me her senior prom pocketbook. And I remember that. I don't remember her giving it to me when I was 11, but it was really pretty. It was this little um like white, off-white satin with the beading all around it and the little chain. Like, oh my gosh, super cute. I think I still have it somewhere. Really? Um, I don't know what I would have done with it if I don't, but yeah.

SPEAKER_06 36:40

We used to play with my mom's um prom dresses. You'll you'll you'll not believe this, but hers were all pink.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

I don't ever remember my mom's prom dresses.

SPEAKER_06 36:54

And none of us fit in them. My mom was a teeny, tiny, skinny ass bitch until she had the other one. Her wedding dress, uh, my sister, I my sister fit into it when she was like 10. Wow. Is tiny. Wow. Teeny, tiny little mom. Oh, she's so cute. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

She's mad today. She is.

Artemis Returns With New Goals

SPEAKER_06 37:27

Okay. Um, so by the 2010s, something shifted. China was arising as a space power. Private companies were building rockets. NASA needed a new frontier, and the moon suddenly mattered again, scientifically, politically, strategically. The U.S. decided to return, but this time the mission needed a new name. Apollo was the sun god. His twin sister, Artemis, was the moon goddess. NASA chose her deliberately. Artemis isn't just go back to the moon, it's build a permanent presence there. The goals are huge. Land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon. Explore the South Pole where water ice exists. Build a lunar base camp. Build gateway, a small space station orbiting the moon. Test the tech needed for Mars missions. Apollo was a sprint, Artemis is infrastructure. Um, so like I've said before, you cannot get to Mars without the moon. Um, you can't pack enough shit and take off from here because it takes too much effort unless you invent some new way to take off. Right. Which might happen, but the moon, you need the moon. Yeah. And we junked this planet up. Might as well junk something else up. Yeah, sure. Why not?

unknown 38:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 38:44

The hardware of Artemis is the L SLS, it's the new Saturn V. It does kind of look like the Saturn V. Um, the it's the space launch system, it's the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built. It's the spiritual successor to Saturn V. Same energy, new century. Uh, new year, new me. Um, Orion is the crew capsule. Orion is the spacecraft that carries astronauts to lunar orbit. It's bigger, safer, and more advanced than Apollo's command module. Gateway is the lunar space station, a small station that will orbit the moon and act as a staging point, a science lab, a refueling depot, a transfer hub for landers. Uh, think of it as like the moon's front porch. Oh. The lunar lander is built by SpaceX. NASA hired SpaceX. I'm gonna use the term hired loosely, to build the human landing system, a modified starship that will ferry astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface. Um, it's enormous, it's far bigger than Apollo lander because Artemis is about staying, not just visiting. So Artemis 1 was 2022. It was uncrewed test plate. Orion flew around the moon and back. It proved that the rocket and capsule worked. So now we're gonna um skip to right now. Well, yesterday. Artemis 2 is the first crewed mission of the Artemis program. It is the moment where NASA stopped testing hardware and starts testing humans in deep space again. Um it's not gonna land. It's a lunar flyby, a long looping trajectory that sends astronauts further from Earth than anyone has traveled since 1972. Um it's Apollo 8's spirit which also this is what I find um crazy. That they sent one out and zoomed around and we're like, yeah, we're good. Let's let's put people in it. That's crazy. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, I guess it's crazy. I guess it's not crazy. If you're gonna do it, go bigger but go home, I guess. But I don't know. For me, I feel like you should maybe just do it like maybe twice. Yeah. Before you sent people make sure it wasn't a fluke. Um Artemis 2's crew is deliberately symbolic. Um, a statement about who gets to go to the moon this time. Oh, by the way, Artemis III will be the dress rehearsal. It will um I don't know if I put that in there, but it will land and then take back off. I don't think people are gonna get out of it. But okay. Yeah, Artemis III in next year. Okay. I might have put that in there, but and then I got okay, sidetracked. Reed Wiseman is a commander, former chief astronaut Victor Glover is the pilot, the first black astronaut to leave Earth orbit. A test pilot with presence, the kind of guy who makes history look effortless. Christina Koch, missin mission specialist, uh record holder for the longest space flight by a woman. She will become the first woman to travel beyond low Earth orbit. Well, she did become, I thought I suppose. Uh Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist, a Canadian astronaut, the first non-American to fly towards the moon. Uh, a diplomatic flex and a partnership milestone. The crew is the anti-Apollo, diverse, international, modern, and chosen to represent the future, not the past, unlike the cowboys of Apollo. Which they were. Yes. They have bitches and hoes everywhere. Um the SLS space launch system, the most powerful rocket and ASA has ever built, more thrust than the Saturn V, a controlled explosion designed to throw humans deep into space. Orion, the spacecraft that carries the crew, it's larger, safer, built for weeks, not days, equipped with a heat shield that can survive re-entry at 25,000 miles per hour. Uh no, no. It's this is the first time it's carrying humans. It's a 10-day mission, which we're almost through. Actually, by the time you all hear this, yeah. Or close to. Isn't it Friday? Yeah, Friday at 8 p.m. Okay. They splashed down. I think it was 8. I'd tell you later. Okay. Um after launch, Orion stays in stayed in Earth orbit for I had when I got the itinerary of it, obviously it was before it went, so pardon the the future tense. Uh it stayed in order, orbit for about 24 hours while they tested life support, navigation, propulsion, communications, and manual controls.

SPEAKER_03 43:43

And all that failed is the toilet. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 43:46

This is the if anything's wrong, we can still come home window. SLL's upper stage fires, sending Orion on a long arc toward the moon. This is the moment where Earth stops being home. And becomes a shrinking blue marble. Um, Orion swings around the far side of the moon, the side no one on on Earth can see. The crew will be further from Earth than humans since Apollo 17. Then the return trajectory, gravity slingshots them back towards Earth, re-entry and splashdown. Orion hits the atmosphere at Mach 32. The heat shield takes the brunt, the hottest re-entry since Apollo, and they splash down in the Pacific.

SPEAKER_03 44:30

Yeah. I mean, even that whole just counting on gravity to snatch you up and take you where you're supposed to go, like it's all scary to me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:40

Okay. So let's go back in time to yesterday. Um what was yesterday? The 6th? April 6th. Monday. Yeah. 2026. In case you're listening to this in the future. If so, you know, all the podcasts that I listen to in like that have old episodes from like 2020. They're like, if you're listening into the in the future, I hope things are better. And the whole time you're like, it's not.

SPEAKER_03 45:15

It's just not. We'll take COVID back anytime.

SPEAKER_06 45:19

Let's just go back to that. That craziness. It's not. No. So if you're listening in the future, I don't know. I hope things worked out. Just after midnight, while most of Earth slept, Orion crossed an invisible border, the line where Earth's gravity loosens its grip and the moons take over. Inside the capsule, Christina Koch looked out the window and whispered the words that would define the morning. We are now falling to the moon. For the first time in 54 years, humans were no longer orbiting Earth. They were being claimed by another world. Okay, this is a part. I really don't know if I'm gonna be able to get through. Because I tried doing it last night. I fucking cried through it. So where is my fireball? Maybe Jim Lovell recorded in 2025, just months before he passed away at age 97. NASA played it for the crew as their wake-up call on flight day six, the day they entered the moon sphere of influence and prepared for their historic flyby. Hello, Artemis 2. This is Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell. Welcome to My Old Neighborhood. When Frank Borman, Bill Anders, and I orbited the moon on Apollo 8, we got humanity's first up close look at the moon and got a view of the home planet that inspired and united people around the world. I'm proud to pass that torch on to you as you swing around the moon and lay the groundwork for missions to Mars for the benefit of all. It's a historic day, and I know how busy you'll be, but don't forget to enjoy the view. So read, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, and all the great team supporting you. Good luck and Godspeed from all of us here on the good Earth. I got through it. I had to cry a lot before, but I did get through it.

SPEAKER_03 47:11

Yeah. Yeah, if we had to take a little pause too while she collected herself. I did hear that today on NPR. I heard the recording. Um it was amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:21

I mean, the man just ugh. Maybe like having Tom Hanks do it.

SPEAKER_03 47:26

Yeah, because it was like an inner ear injury or something, right? That kept him from going.

SPEAKER_06 47:31

Well, the Apollo 13, he was supposed to, and then he couldn't go on any of the other ones. He was on he piloted Apollo 13 and they couldn't land, and they had to come back, and then he wasn't scheduled for the other ones. And oh, okay. He flew around it for the first time, and then Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, and then they were supposed to go with Apollo 13, and they didn't, so he never got the chance to land, and it's all he wanted to fucking do. Yep. And can you imagine? Because they didn't they didn't tell him. So the crew, you know, you hear that, and it's just gotta be like, ugh. Yeah. I I'm not even a crew.

SPEAKER_03 48:13

And it it fucking You'd feel like you were like in heaven listening to him talk or something.

SPEAKER_06 48:19

I mean, I can't even imagine. Yeah. The mission, the message hit the crew hard and mission control even harder. Lovell was one of the last surviving astronauts from the era that invented lunar flight. His words were a literal paw passing of the torch from Apollo to Artemis. Um so Lovell flew to the moon twice, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13, and he never walked on it, but he helped humanity understand it. His blessing is symbolic. Apollo's generation handing the moon to Artemis' generation. It was recorded knowing he wouldn't live to see Artemis II fly. The crew heard it at the exact moment they were becoming the most distant humans in history. And somewhere far below on the planet level called home, the great voice of Apollo had just landed the moon to Artemis, handed the moon to Artemis. All right. So by early afternoon, the number began to climb past legend. 248,000 miles, 249,000, 250,000 miles. The crew of Artemis II, Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen became the most distant humans in history, surpassing Apollo 13's record. Um, this was by design. Mission control called up to congratulate them. Victor Glover laughed, a sound that felt like relief and all braided together. They weren't just astronauts anymore. They were explorers at the edge of human reach.

SPEAKER_03 49:44

I do love Glover. He just has such a almost like bubbly personality. He's like a high school cheerleader. Yeah. The crew was great. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 49:55

Uh 2 45 p.m. The moon filled the windows. Um, not as a distant disk, but a looming cratered world. The crew began their long observation shift, photography, photographing ancient basins and shadow craters no human eye had ever seen from this angle. The terminator line is the razor-sharp divide between lunar day and night.

SPEAKER_03 50:19

I did hear about the terminator line today, too, on NPR, and I made sure to pay attention so that when you mentioned it, I would know what you were talking about. There you go.

Falling To The Moon Moment

SPEAKER_06 50:27

It's the day and night. Yep. Uh Glover described it as islands of light floating in a sea of darkness. It was the kind of view that rewires a person, Christina Koch said. We're ready for the dark side. So this was as they're getting ready to go to their 41 minutes of silence, which is the scariest fucking thing. So Christina Koch said, We're ready for the dark side. And Victor Glover said, We will see you on the other side. And that was it. For 41 minutes. Everyone in the control room held their breath for 41 minutes. Evening fell on Earth, Orion slipped behind the moon. The signal died. No telemetry, no voices, no heartbeat from the spacecraft. Just like Apollo before them, the crew vanished into the lunar shadow. Four humans alone behind 2,000 miles of rock.

SPEAKER_03 51:20

I also think it's so super cool that they lost signal because the blue moon was blocking it. Like that's the part that's waves and everything move around things.

SPEAKER_06 51:30

It is 2026. Yes. And you still can't get around the moon. You can't talk around the moon. No. It's crazy, right? Your signal drops.

unknown 51:39

It's insane.

SPEAKER_06 51:42

Mission control waited. The world waited. Silence pressed in like a physical wait. Somewhere on the far side, the crew watched Earth set, the blue marble sinking behind the lunar horizon, a sight no human had witnessed in half a century. At 7 02 p.m., the closest approach, at 4,070 miles above the surface, Orion skimmed the moon's gravity well. Craters rushed beneath them like frozen explosions. The far side, the side that never faces Earth, stretched out in stark ancient silence. It was the moment Artemis II was built for, the moment that justified the rocket, the capsule, the training, and the risk. The moment humanity returned to the moon's hidden face. So they got to see stuff that we will never see because it's on the other side. And by the way, one of the radio stations out of Baltimore at 98 Rock, as soon as they it was like it was 5 30. They started at 5 30 and they played Dark Side of the Moon. So cool. I mean, I'm a nerd. I get it, I know, but come on. That's fucking crazy. And I paced around the house for 41 minutes. And the NASA YouTube channel told you fun stories and cool stuff about the moon. And it's just like okay, I get it. These astronauts they were busy doing shit, taking pictures, and you know, in and all and everything. But still, the fact that for 41 minutes there are four human beings that we have no way to help talk to. We I mean, if they just flew out, there's nothing we could do. There was not nothing, no way to stop it.

SPEAKER_03 53:38

No Yeah, and while you say that they were working, they said that they were very fortunate that everything was so good with the capsule itself, yeah, that they really could just get into the moment, enjoy the work, do what they wanted to and needed to get done. So, and I heard they saw like browns and blues and all kinds of cool stuff.

SPEAKER_06 54:03

The NASA YouTube channel, while they were uh out of contact, uh showed you all the geological training that they went through to spot the different kinds of because they're not geologists. So, you know, they and geologists, and one of the funny things that I thought about is like they're not professional photographers, they're not, you know, I'm obviously they were trained for years to do these things, but they're not geologists. And what if, and I guess that's why they get to go and I don't. Um what if when that happens, you're just so just in a trance over the sheer beauty of what you're seeing. Like you all we're looking at this thing from this far away, from 250,000 million miles bazillion. No, 250,000 miles away. We're very far, 400,000 miles. We see it, and it's fucking beautiful, especially on a full moon when it's low and it's huge, and you can see all the little craters, and you're not even seeing like a tenth of the beauty that these people see. Yeah, that would just how do you not get mesmerized by it and just forget?

SPEAKER_03 55:19

I get mesmerized looking out a plane window down at Earth. Right?

SPEAKER_06 55:23

Like all the little fields and how square they are. You're like, how did they get them so fucking square when they're not up here looking? I can't even get it square, like drawing on a piece of paper. Fucking amazing. And so, like this fact that they could see and and this is shit that that n hardly anybody has ever seen. With their own two eyes, like, yeah, we've seen it in photos, blah blah blah. But they're looking out the window.

SPEAKER_03 55:50

Yeah.

Jim Lovell Message And Torch Passing

SPEAKER_06 55:51

And it's right there. That would be wild, right? So wild. I don't know how you can pay attention to anything else. And then you gotta then you got all this shit you gotta do. Like, take pictures and look for this and look for that, and that's a lot of work. And you just have to just be like this, and you have to at some point, and I'm sure they were. Take a moment, take a moment, and just be like, Wow, like we are here, yeah. Because these are this, it's not like these people were just chosen at random off the street. These are people who have wanted to go into space. That's crazy. It's like just oh yes, I just go on too much. I know. At 727, the signal returned. A burst of static, a carrier tone. Then Reed Weissman's voice, calm and steady. Houston Orion has reacquired signal. Cheers erupted in mission control. They didn't broadcast this, by the way. I had to look this one up. Christina Koch said that they did broadcast what she she had a whole thing, but I'm just gonna say she said, good to be back with you, Houston. And then she had a whole thing about beauty and love and stuff. Um, the crew was safe. The trajectory was perfect. Artemis too had survived the far side of the moon. Um at 10.03 p.m. I had gone to bed, so I had to use the um itinerary. So hopefully it went fine. Orion will fire its engines one last time. A precise correction, burn that locks in its path home. After that, the moon will release them and Earth's gravity will begin pulling them back. The next time they see the moon, it will be shrinking behind them. The next time they see Earth, it will be growing and fast. So yesterday wasn't just a flyby, it was a statement, a declaration that humanity still knows how to dream big, still knows how to risk and how to reach beyond the familiar. Yesterday, four astronauts circled the moon. Today we claim we reclaimed a frontier. Uh, Artemis became real. So today, April 7th, Orion um is now on the long arc home. Uh the today is mostly system checks, navigation verification, life support monitoring, crew rest, and uh photography of Earth. Um April 8th, tomorrow. The quiet part of the mission. Uh, radiation, environmental measurements, deep space, calms tests, exercise and medical monitoring, heat shield thermal checks, cabin environment, stability tests. Um, it NASA may adjust the schedule based on real-time conditions, um, of course. April 9th is re-entry prep. The crew begins preparing for the most dangerous phase of the mission, stowing equipment, securing the cabin, um, putting their pressure suits on, running re-entry simulations, verifying guidance and navigation checking, parachute deployment systems, and mission control performs final trajectory updates and confirmed splashdown zone weather. April 10th. Friday. Um we don't know exact time because it's updated by NASA Daily. Orion approaches Earth at Mach 32, the fastest and hottest crude re-entry since Apollo. The heat shield must withstand temperatures hotter than molten lava. It skips uh a skip re-entry maneuver. Orion bounces off the atmosphere to reduce G forces. Its final atmospheric entry, the parachute deployment and main parachute deployment, splash down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, approximately 8.07 p.m. And recovery by U.S. Navy and NASA teams. And this will mark the end of the first crewed lunar mission since 1972.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:00

So super cool. And so cool that you're talking about this while it's happening. I know. Like that's wild. I know.

Far Side Silence And Earthset

SPEAKER_06 1:00:07

So Artemis III will be the first landing, the first woman, the first person of color on the moon, the first humans at the lunar south pole. Artemis four, five, and six will be building gateway, building the base camp, and learning to live off the land, preparing for Mars. Um, so why are they dealing with the South Pole? Apollo landed near the equator, sunny, flat, and safe. Artemis is going to the South Pole where sunlight is low and dramatic. Craters are permanently shadowed. Temperatures drop to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, negative 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Sorry. And what drop to 400 would be disgraceful. Looking at the sun or that one. Are we on Venus or Mercury? Water ice hides in the darkness. Um, the water ice is what they're going for. It's drinkable, it has oxygen, and it's convertible to rocket fuel. Oh my god, I want to drink moon water. The South Pole is the key to sustainable lunar presence. Um, Artemis is about power, science, identity, and legacy. The moon is becoming a geopolitical arena again. China has its own lunar program. Whoever builds the first lunar infrastructure sets the rules. I guess. Um science. The moon holds untouched geology, ancient records of the early solar systems, resources for deep space missions, its laboratories with no atmosphere and no weather. Um, identity. Apollo was all white men. Artemis is rewriting the story. Apollo was a moment, Artemis is the future. Apollo was a sun god, bright, bold, masculine, heroic. Artemis is the moon goddess, strategic, enduring, fierce, and patient. Apollo planted a flag, Artemis builds a home. Apollo visited, Artemis will stay. Apollo proved we could go, Artemis proves we can belong. Um for the first time in half a century, humanity is doing something big again. Something that requires courage, money, imagination, and risk. Something that makes kids look up at the sky and feel possibility instead of dread. Artemis is the moment we stopped saying we used to go to the moon and started saying we do go to the moon.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:24

Yeah, that's sad about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:26

That was so super cool. It made me feel like even more excited about what's happening right now. Like just thinking about them out there in space coming back towards Earth right now.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:37

I'm I'm obviously I'm gonna watch the re-entry. Yes. They'll do that. Um and I so I know I don't know. I know if you have listened, we did one on space. I don't remember what the name of it was, but it was my space station or my space shuttle.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:57

It did have something to do with the shuttle. Yeah, was the title.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:00

Shuttle trouble boiling bubble.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:02

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:03

It was a it was a Macbeth and because that's the nerd I am. Yes, yes. Um so I've seen the space uh shuttle go off twice. Um I have seen multiple of the um SpaceX uh rocket go up that refuels the space station. Um so one of the things that I do know is that the space station is they thought was gonna be what they needed, but nothing stays in orbit. It constantly is falling. Right. The space station has to keep pushing itself back up, and obviously that's not sustainable. Um can't, it's just not. So eventually they are going to bring it down. Um I watched when the space station mirror came down, it was like three o'clock in the morning over the Indian Ocean, made me cry. Um I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. Um, then I found out that you have to do math. And I'm really not good at math. And I don't understand it. Um, so yesterday was pretty fucking exciting for me. And I um hope that there are kids out there that watched it and were you know, it's also funny because I saw a lot of people when Artemis took off, um, you know, it was broadcast over everything. And I saw a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of people on the internet saying, was I the only Gen Xer holding my breath on that one? And as many as I've seen go up, it is a hold your breath moment every time. Yeah. I mean, you're strapping yourself to a rocket.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:05

Yeah. And I was watching footage of the crowd as it took off and a lot of Gen X age people sobbing while they were watching it.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:15

I think part of the problem with the space exploration up until now was because we had that experience. Yeah. I think it's, you know, boomers wanted to go, they had that, we're gonna fucking land on the moon and we're gonna do all this. And then when we came in charge, we were like, um that blows up. That was really upsetting. Um, and I know a lot of people are younger are like, oh, did they really wash it? Yeah. Yeah, we did. And then we just went right back to school after they exploded in the middle of the air. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:00

So sure did. Um, I also saw um that with this mission they discovered two new craters that they named. Yes. One of them was named Integrity after the mission. Mission. And the other was named Carol after one of the astronauts' wife who died a couple years ago of cancer. And I even heard audio of him back to um the room. Yeah. Mission control. Mission control, that's it. Saying, and that's C-A-R-R-O-L-L. I was like, oh I love that they got to name stuff. I know. I love that he named that. After his wife. Oh my god. That's something that family will tell for until there's no more universe left.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:48

And what a beautiful tribute. Right. And when I die, I expect someone to name something on the I bought you a star.

unknown 1:06:55

I know. I have the star.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:59

I have it. I know. I'll still find something cool to name after you.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:02

My sister sent my name to Mars, so yeah, you could uh NASA had a thing where you could sign up and they had um one of the one of the missions that went um took a plaque and it had people's names burned on it. So come on, Mars, kids. Super cool. The only way I'm gonna get there. But one of the things like I I think we don't really think about is um first the absolute uh intellectual and I don't know how else to say it, but the brains that these people have to have to be able to do this is just it blows my mind that two people can walk into an old rundown house and imagine that it's gonna look really good by the end of the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:55

So imagine how I feel about people who can do just build this rocket and they're like, hey, let's go to the moon.

Coming Home Re-Entry And South Pole

SPEAKER_06 1:08:04

Um I think it is um I hope that yesterday and this week has inspired children the way it inspired, the way I was inspired when I was a kid, and the way Neil Armstrong was inspired when he was a kid, and Tom Hanks and everybody who loves space. Because I mean, on one side of it, I get it, it's expensive. I get it. There's parts of the earth we don't even know about. They they just found a Greenland shark that was 500 years old that swam by a camera somewhere. I I there's stuff in the Indian Ocean that we have no idea about. I get it. I also think it was funny that the whole big thing is when they were out of contact for 41 minutes, that it was our chance to everyone dress up and play in of the apes outfits. That was pretty funny. That would have been fun. Also, one of my co-workers. Um, so if you if you know anything about Star Trek, um first contact is uh 2063 when Zephyr Cochran um achieves warp, and there are Vulcans on the other side of the moon, and they see him, and that is when um it's also just as a little side note after World War Three, 2063, 2013 predicting the 2063. Yeah, after a really long World War III, just you know, case you cared about Star Trek. Um But I was at one of the my co-workers yesterday morning. Um, I said something about you know what the 41 minutes because one of my other coworkers was like, Well, how long is it gonna be with no contact? And I said, 41 minutes, and my other coworker was like, Well, that's when the aliens are gonna get them. And uh he was like, You know, the Vulcans are hiding out back there. And I was like, not until 2063. That's why I love my coworker because he is a nerd just like me and got my joke. So um, but yeah, I think it's it's I'm hoping that we get inspired. And um, I mean, I think they're all gung-ho and going to Mars. I don't think we'll see that in our lifetime.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:39

I don't know. I feel like stuff's gonna move really, really fast now. Um, but Glover did say let's make this record not hold up for very long. So he definitely wants people to be inspired as well and follow him out there.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:55

And they're all Gen X.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:57

I know. I was on Threads and uh I have a really good um uh algorithm going on threads for the for our podcast. And um, yeah, that was one of the first things I saw when they went on there. They were like, hey Gen X, this is all you guys nice work.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:15

And I remember as a kid, you know, I I do. We I I had a uh had a telescope. We have way too much light pollution here for then it was a shitty telescope, but um I had globes of the moon, the solar system, and uh um the earth, and I've forgotten a lot of it because you know you don't use it, you lose it.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:39

Um and I mean you were 18 when I met you, and you were still die hard. I want to be an astronaut. Yeah, I want to go to space. That's all you talked about. Drugs, yeah. And that and she went to space in a different way.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:56

And and then I realized that school is not for me, and math is hard. Yeah. I did try to get a job with NASA. I was gonna try and get a job with NASA. Um they make but she did drugs. I they make all the food at Wallops that they send up. Yeah, which Wallops Island is like about an hour and a half from here. That's a long commute. I mean, it will I would have done it if NASA was like, sure. But you have to have a degree in nutrition and it's a shame you weren't born a little earlier.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:29

You could have worked at ILC where they made the spacesuits. The spacesuits, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:34

That's made here.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:35

Um, or Wilmington, right? It used to be in Harrington. Oh, Harrington. Mm-hmm. Houston, like somewhere. We don't say Houston. We say Houston. Yeah, it's Houston here.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:48

Really? But yeah, uh, so I I do hope that we we get some more excitement, and we will.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:55

I think the rich guys are pretty jacked about this.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:57

I think they're gonna keep I'm sure Elon Musk has once has got a heart on for Mars, so well, yeah, and who's the guy with the blue um Oh Blue Horizon.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:08

Yeah, what's his name? Why can I never remember his name? Richard Branson? Yes. Yeah. He's actually the one I like the most of any of them, if I had to pick one. If I had to, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:18

Blue Horizon. I thought Blue wait, he has Virgin. Blue Horizon. Isn't that uh Amazon's one? Um I will know in just a second. Um like I said, I lost it. I don't I do follow it a little bit, but all right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:43

So I looked, it's actually not Blue Horizon, it's Blue Origin, and as usual, Heather was correct, and it is Jeff Bezos of Amazon Fame.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:52

So they just re-signed their contract with the USPS, by the way. Hmm. Yeah. Uh that's not good. No, it actually is because they were saying they were gonna run out of money in October, and that was when the Amazon contract went up.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:08

What about privatization though? That'll stop it. Oh, okay.

Inspiration Talk And Closing Plugs

SPEAKER_06 1:14:13

Good. I won't stop it, stop it, but it it pauses it. It does exactly what it did to begin with. Amazon signed that contract with USPS to bail the United States Postal Service out the first time, and it's doing it again um by signing the contract. I don't know what I'm sure it's cheap as shit. But oh, it's chump change for him. Yeah. So but they did and that's good for me because I already lost money this round and I didn't need to be losing no more. So that's crazy. It's gonna stop the I was I was actually very concerned about uh we were supposed to stop getting Amazon altogether in October. But they have uh supposedly renewed the contract and no one cares about that. Um Although it's funny because we were joking today that um, you know, with the current climate and all the shit that's happening, hey mailmen might be the only job left. So you know. Yeah, you're not real. Glad we have it. And distilleries. Yeah. Funeral business is always recession proof, also. Yeah, that's that's probably about it. All right, well, dream big kids.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:19

Yes, and help your kids to dream big and their kids to dream big. Let's go back to the moon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:25

And if you have a if you have a hanker in and um NASA's putting up all the pictures that they um took today, they're putting them up from yesterday. Um which is also crazy that they can just send the ship back and forth.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:39

It's like it's it's so crazy. But if I send you an email from right here sitting in front of your face, 10 minutes. Yeah, 10 minutes for you to get it. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:46

That's we don't have NASA. Back in my day. Back when I was a kid, we had to use a stamp. And it was only 10 cents. Uh, thanks for listening, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:00

Thanks for indulging. Thank you. Yes, thank you for indulging Heather. She sent me the text. Can't do you mind if I do this week and you do the next two weeks, and I said no. And I meant no, you can't, but but I did it anyway. But I was just kidding. And then yesterday she was like, I bet you can't guess what it is. I was like, I knew the second you sent me the text, I said, Can I do this week what it was for?

SPEAKER_06 1:16:24

I had to do it's like a uh a semi-annual Heather nerds out to space.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:30

It is, and it was perfect timing, like it really made it feel like different for me because it's actually happening right now, like they're actually still out there. And and it was successful, like they got around the moon, everybody's alive. Okay, good, great. Now we just wait for them to land on Friday and then we're good. But it's so neat to have sat here and talked about it. And I have listened to the news, I listened to a lot of NPR, so it's on in the background a lot. But a lot of the stuff, like as far as the itinerary and all the breakdown of everything, like I didn't know all that.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:01

So I also wanted to give the background on the moon and like you know what's because you know we we've come very far from thinking that it was brought by chariots to what we know now, and we learn new stuff every day.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:15

So I'm still bummed that's not made out of cheese. I'm sorry. I'm really not interested in going if it's not I'm sorry. A lot of dust. Um although I do want some of that moon water.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:26

You can't have moon water. I know. They gotta use it. I don't know how much there is. Yeah. I remember when they found it though. It was fucking exciting.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:35

A little cup. Just a little like Dixie cup, little like wax ones your mom grandma used to keep in the bathroom. Okay, we'll see.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:44

It's like what um in uh oh the Adam Sandler movie with his water, glacier water.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:51

Oh yeah, Water Boy. Waterboy. Uh huh. That's hot. Why I didn't remember that. That is my favorite Adam Sandler movie. Mine is um Happy Gilmore. I know. I just love Vicky Valencourt so much.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:05

Anyway, some other day we'll do Adam Sandler. Um yeah. Thanks for listening. Thank you. Uh rate, share, review. Please find us on all the socials. Yes. Uh at Like Whatever Pod. Uh we have a website. It's likewateverpod.com. Um the YouTube. We got a YouTube rooney. We have a uh TikTok, but I don't ever do anything with it. Um because we'd have to actually make videos. One day. Yeah. Uh we have an email. You can send us an email about what planet you want to visit, either on drugs or not. I like whateverpod at gmail.com or don't like whatever. Whatever. Bye.