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Through their lunar observation period, the Artemis II astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen – turn the camera around for a selfie inside the Orion spacecraft. Photo Credit: NASA/Instagram.
On the 1st of April, 2026, a four-person crew of Artemis II lifted off at Kennedy Space Centre to visit the moon, orbiting around it, and floating in outer space, in a place that seemed like an unlivable place thousands of years ago. They have been there for the past 10 days, sharing visuals of the moon, naming a crater after Carroll, and narrating what it’s like being outside the usual and the norm. They are four different people with different families, holed up in the Orion spacecraft, staring at the moon, but sharing moments together, living together, eating together, daring to do one of the most dangerous adventures anyone could think of.
While they are up there, Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen have been sharing words and nuggets that make me think deeply about how the Earth is perceived. We all live inside this Earth; black, white, yellow and other kinds of colours we have stereotypically invented, we all share this planet Earth, and whether we like it or not, it’s the place we have all been created to live. It is through this living, however, that we have all managed to create segregations, borders and classes. It is through this living that racism, classism, tribalism, religion-ism, and other kinds of isms we have generated to believe that we don’t belong to a group, were born. But if we are so so different, as we claim to be, we shouldn’t all share the same planet.
Christina Koch, in her message down to Earth, shares that “The thing that changed for me looking back at Earth, was that I found myself noticing not only the beauty of the Earth, but how much blackness there was around it and made it more special. It truly emphasised how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive. We evolved on the same planet, and we have some shared things about how we love and live that are just universal. And the specialness and the preciousness of that really is emphasised when you notice how much else there is around it.”
Victor Glover shares that “I think these observances are important, and as we are so far from Earth and looking at the beauty of creation, I think, for me, one of the personal perspectives I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing. And you know, when I read the Bible, and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us, whoever created it, you have this amazing place. You guys are talking to us because we are in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you are on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place in the universe and the cosmos. Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we are doing is special, but I’m trying to tell, you are special. In all of this emptiness, this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe; you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. As we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing and that we have to get through this together.”
We have to get through this together, as one, as humans, because we found ourselves inside the orbit, this round thing called Earth, and we have no choice but to choose it. I hope this mission allows us to think about what the future could be, how we think of ourselves and how we view ourselves beyond segregation and discrimination, because whether we like it or not, the Earth is Earth, and we live in it.
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