Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall – April 4, 2026 – Picture Credit to NASA
Artemis is the Greek God of the moon. Artemis II is the first crew of astronauts to travel around the moon in a very long time, over 53 years. Three Americans consisting of the first black, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, the first female. Rounding out the crew is another American, Reid Weisman and a Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.
Reaching speeds of over 22,000 mph, it only took 85 seconds to leave Earths orbit. Amazing! They will splash down in the Pacific Ocean April 10th returning at even faster speeds, 25,000 mph. Unbelievable. Why so much faster? I didn’t know there was a problem with the heat shield in Artemis I. This time they are not redesigning the heat shield. Instead, they are coming in at a steeper, more direct reentry trajectory which reduces the time the capsule spends in the high-heat, high-pressure phase, about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Hope it works. Once they reach about 4.7 miles above the ocean, parachutes will deploy, slowing down the capsule to 325 mph.
It’s so exciting to watch video’s of the four astronauts in their Orion capsule looking happy as clams. Did you know that their capsule is about 330 cubic feet? I can’t imagine trying to live for 10 days with 3 other people in that tiny space. Another thing they don’t know what day they’re on as time feels different in a zero gravity environment. But they did wake up to “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan.
