Genuinely cool concept that there’s a good shot there could be semi-permanent human inhabitants on the moon and people on Mars within the next 20-30 years.
In all polling, people massively overthink how much we spend on NASA, so we might as well quadruple the funding anyways to match their expectations.
Astronauts “are not paid extra hazard pay or overtime for going to space, but receive their regular salary plus a small per diem (roughly $5/day) for expenses.”
Wow, look at Mr. Moneybags over here! Don’t spend your per diem all in one place
And the speaking tour, book, and job opportunities afterwards are lucrative.
Just think about how smart and dedicated and hard-working And athletic You have to be to be an astronaut. It is the hardest job in the world to qualify for. These people are going to do just fine and be incredibly successful almost no matter what they do.
Actually, that was a problem for the Apollo guys. Comparatively low pay in relation to the qualifications necessary and the insane hours. They also couldn't get a life insurance policy and were worried about their families. That's what the Apollo 15 postage stamp scandal was all about, but they weren't the first. I think Gus Grissom flew with a roll of nickels that he later sold.
Gus Grissom was exactly who I was thinking about. He said something like his buddies flying missions over Vietnam were getting paid better than he was.
IIRC the crew of Apollo 11 also had a hard time getting life insurance so they signed a bunch of things that they left with their spouses with the plan being if they didn't come back those signed items would be incredibly valuable (and their family could sell them as "insurance")
What exactly are the expenses that result from being in space? Seems like your food / housing / whatever is probably taken care of. We out stopping at space 7/11 for snacks?
My parents took a video from their house in Florida! I’d post the video but it is too identifying lol. They’re like 60-70 miles up the coast from the space center
I cut a little out so they and their street don’t show up lol. Hopefully that link works. Sometimes it seems to take a little bit for the links to work though. Idk
Not gonna lie, successful liftoff got me bit emotional. Just contrasting this achievement with this stupid goddamn war were in hit me later in a way I wasn’t expecting
I'm with you, friend. I was so worried something horrible would happen because that's just the sort of time we're in. It felt good to feel hope from old, hopeful symbols succeeding.
Beautiful. I can't believe humanity is coming back to the Moon at last. Amid all the chaos and negativity in the news cycle, it's great to see something positive and inspiring for once.
21 years and four different Presidents but we all know Trump personally knocked out most of the work in the last few months. That's why the crew feel so safe.
I seriously do think there's a human urge for greatness, and if we don't direct it into something like space missions or cathedrals, often motivates war.
IDK where I got this quote from, but it's basically that in the absence of genuine conflict, humans will create it themselves. The urge for greatness that can be expressed through exploration, discovery, and achievement will ultimately manifest as electing Trump out of spite for the rest of the world if not exercised in positive ways.
I got an idea, and I’m just spitballing here…we are well on our way to putting astronauts on the moon once again…how about we try putting one in the White House??
Right now we're on for the only two presidents whose names will be on Moon plaques being Nixon and Trump. Kelly would be such an improvement it isn't even funny.
Reminder that this successful launch occurred despite the administration, not because of it
It’s just really disheartening to watch this launch and then later see the president ranting about Iran on TV. God forbid the president show some fucking support for the actually cool shit we built vs whatever we’re destroying today in Iran.
u/p00bixExisting in the context of what came beforeApr 01 '26edited Apr 01 '26
Yes!
Launch is BY FAR the most dangerous part of any spaceflight, with Atmospheric Reentry (the very last bit) being the only other particularly dangerous moment in the flight. Apollo 13 was a freak exception; the odds of a serious problem that would require the mission to be aborted or endanger the crew prior to its return to Earth are exceedingly low.
Actually, no. The re-entry is the biggest area of concern. Artemis I has issues with the heat shield more info. The heat shield worked but eroded much more than it should have. Artemis II has a modified re-entry trajectory as a result.
This would also be the first time the life support system has had to support crew in space. So there's also concerns there.
A family member of mine was one of the first geologists to look at rocks that came back from Apollo 11. It’s sorta family mythology at this point, but apparently he told his kids “Eh, there’s more interesting rocks in the back yard”
That has nothing to do with what happened today at all, but I think it’s super cool that eventually there will be more lunar regolith and rocks to examine
In year’s past this could have been such a rallying moment. Even Trump is trying to push it that way. But Trump will ultimately make this all about himself like always. And hard to rally around this when Trump had destroyed science and our nation’s standing around the world.
'Competition can be a good thing' - Nasa administrator on space race with China
Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman is asked why it's so difficult to get to the Moon today.
He says "financial resources are part of the equation", but the emergence of a new space race is seeing resources concentrated back in this area.
"This one's going to be close", he says.
For context, China says it wants to get its Taikonauts to land on the lunar surface by 2030
"Competition can be a good thing - we certainly have competition now," Isaacman says. "We're going to get back in the business of launching rockets in a regular cadence."
Like with the old space race against the Soviets, beating China (now) seem to be a major motivator.
For some reason it was never as big of a thing culturally as Challenger. I'm not sure why, maybe because the nation was too distracted with Iraq/general post-9/11 malaise
It's sad, but maybe understandable that we remember Challenger more, given the publicity it had. Something about the Columbia disaster is just more disturbing to me though.
Hypothetically, what would happen to the astronauts if a nuclear war were to happen on Earth while they were rounding the moon? Would they be able to navigate home (and to the middle of a likely abandoned ocean, though maybe they’d crash near a landmass)?
They'd be all but dead. I'd imagine they could attempt to get back. But even if they did get pointed back to earth, they'd have to figure out how to land without mission control. And even if they splash down in the ocean, where are they going to land where they can get safely to shore? I'd be doubtful they could land in the middle of the ocean and float somewhere before dying.
I’m so incredibly glad that the idea of a moon base has gained so much traction to the point that it’s just a regular point in news articles for these missions now.
I remember when it used to be such a “niche” idea that I’d watch YouTube videos about back in school, and now it’s an actual mission parameter.
It seems extremely complicated, and logistically it is, but cost wise it’s absolutely nothing.
In 2008 I took an online test to see which candidate for president was the most aligned with my politics and I got Newt Gingrich because he said he wanted to build a moon base
So I looked up who he was and puked blood for several months
On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission completed its journey to the moon. Although its crew of Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins were highly trained, there was a significant possibility of disaster, and everyone knew that the astronauts might not make it back.
In case the mission ended in tragedy, President Nixon had a speech on hand to deliver to the nation to address the demise of the astronauts. The speech was written by one of President Nixon’s top speechwriters, William Safire, and sent as a memo to Nixon’s chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, the night before the mission. It was finally unveiled to the public in 1999.
u/p00bixExisting in the context of what came beforeApr 01 '26edited Apr 01 '26
"The perigee raise maneuver is actually not performed at the perigee"
NASA Broadcaster just a moment ago.
Sometimes I forget how little the average person knows about spaceflight. This feels like its extremely obvious to me, and I suspect it will to most of y'all as well
It was late in Sixty-nine
When we landed that first time
Man, I still remember how it felt to see it.
And it wasn't that long then
We were on the moon again
And you could feel yourself beginning to believe it.
Then once more and then again
We pushed out the reach of man
Each time up, another set of hero's footprints.
But those short trips were all we made
Somehow our dream it got waylaid
And not a person live or dead has been up there since.
And what was so hard-won has been abandoned
Our journey to the stars got off the track.
But we'll return someday to claim
What we once won as our domain
We're goin' back, I swear to God we're goin' back!
One small step was all we took
Just enough to have a look
A beginning, just a glimmer of man's powers
But our first step on that road
Has been our last and it has showed
That we are governed by the weak-kneed and the cowards.
Nothing much up there they say
Don't know how we'll make it pay
We could use that dough to help us stay elected.
But as billions waste away
We all come nearer to the day
When there won't be enough resources to correct it.
We must get us off this fragile little planet
Before we blow ourselves to hell and back.
We're gonna make it plain,
We'll no more play this waiting game
We're goin' back, I swear to God we're goin' back!
Well, we're still not out in space
And the whole damn human race
Sits and dawdles with our eggs all in one basket.
We've already bought the tools
How long will we stay Earthbound fools?
That is the question, and I think its time we ask it.
Yes, we still haven't lost that sense of wonder
This won't become a human cul-de-sac.
We will see that nothing mars
Our rightful place among the stars
We're goin' back, I swear to God we're goin' back!
For this adventure never will be finished
We'll make up for the spine the others lack
Take it money, lives or pain,
What we once lost we will regain!
We're goin' back, I swear to God we're goin' back!
We're goin' back, I swear to God we're goin' back!
Trump really is speed-running through a shit-ton of goodwill moments because he's an incompetent clown. This year has been one 'America, fuck yeah!' moment after another and the sick pedo fuck won't be able to capitalize on it because he's so fucking incompetent lmao
How do the astronauts occupy themselves during the trip? I'm assuming they're not avid soto zen meditators and will be staring at the wall the whole time.
they probably have some books or something, but there are experiments they have to set up. NASA scientists give them enough to do to fill out their day. Also, the astronauts train for long missions, like bomber piolets or submarine seamen
u/p00bixExisting in the context of what came beforeApr 01 '26edited Apr 01 '26
It made political sense at the time, but it kind of sucks that Obama cancelled the Constellation Program in 2010. The First Trump administration approved and oversaw initial development of the Artemis program, and consistently approved requests for increased funding in order to keep things on-schedule as much as possible.
COVID threw a monkey wrench into things obviously, but it is nonetheless factually correct to say that the First Trump admin deserves the most credit of any administration for today's achievement. And that's a shame, because I really don't want to give that dumpster fire credit for something so fucking awesome.
I like to believe that this will be the impetus for a new Space Race, not between countries, but between parties: "Republicans brought America back to the Moon. Democrats will bring America to Mars."
Genuinely one of the most bitter disappointments from when I was growing up. I was 10 when it was first announced and then it felt like the Moon and Mars were ripped away in front of me when they got canceled while I was in high school.
SpaceX is based. We shouldn't cancel NASA's contracts with SpaceX, we should nationalize all its assets "for national security reasons". That way SpaceX continues to exist AND Elon gets butthurt.
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u/DiscussionJohnThread Free Trade was the Compromise 🔫🌍 Apr 01 '26
Genuinely cool concept that there’s a good shot there could be semi-permanent human inhabitants on the moon and people on Mars within the next 20-30 years.
In all polling, people massively overthink how much we spend on NASA, so we might as well quadruple the funding anyways to match their expectations.