Most of you know that I am very interested in space and have followed the various programs since the first Mercury 7 astronauts were selected. I recall with great fondness getting up with Dad early on launch mornings when I was in grammar school to watch history being made by people such as Alan Shepherd, Gus Grissom and John Glenn. In fact, Glenn flew on Feb. 20, 1962, the day after my 9th birthday. I was mesmerized by space and, on reflection, I probably would have enjoyed a career at NASA. I doubt that I would have been chosen as an astronaut – I needed glasses and that was a disqualifier, but aside from that, I don’t think I would have ever been a military pilot, a general prerequisite and I would have been better on the science side.
But Janet and I have been to the launch facility at Pad 39A in Florida at Cape Canaveral and have actually climbed the first level. We have also attended the launch program that reenacts the launch of Apollo 11 – the mission that carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins to the moon. It was unbelievably realistic! Console lights lit, windows shook and the firing room contained the actual equipment that was used for the mission as a voice recording played the countdown and related conversations throughout the complex.
Like the rest of the world, I was spellbound by the thought of actually landing on the surface of the moon and I couldn’t get enough of the coverage. I remember Walter Cronkite removed his glasses and wiped his eyes when Armstrong made history, similar to the way he did when he announced the assassination of President Kennedy years earlier.
The successful moon landing fulfilled a promise that President Kennedy made at the top of the decade and it propelled the U.S. to the lead in the space race – a position we have kept since that incredible day. In total, 12 men have walked on the moon, four of whom are still alive – all of them in their nineties. In fact, Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, will be 96 on Tuesday. The last manned missions to the moon were in 1972 and we are just about ready to return a crew to the moon.
In fact, it is called the Artemis Project. I’m somewhat surprised that it hasn’t garnered more press than it has. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the twin of Apollo and it is fitting that our newest endeavor to the moon has a connection to the Apollo program. Yesterday was a benchmark day in the Artemis program. That’s because Saturday morning, the “crawler” carried the spaceship from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to Pad 39B where it is scheduled to launch in early February, hopefully. By the way, the crawler is larger than a baseball diamond and transports the 11 million pound rocket and payload to its launch site at a speed of less than one mph – after all, it takes time to make the 5 mile journey with that kind of weight. The entire process took about 12 hours beginning to end.
The crew will be comprised of 4 astronauts – and it will be the first time that a woman will travel to the moon. This will be a the farthest from the earth mankind has ever travelled. The crew, while not landing on the moon, will travel 4600 miles past the moon before starting their return to earth.
It is mind boggling to me that none of the astronauts were alive when the Apollo crews were making history in the Sea of Tranquility and the other landing sites on the surface of the moon. In fact, they are all in their forties and only know of the Apollo landings through books and films they have had in their training. Of course, the camaraderie of those who have been to space is a small, tight group and the surviving original Apollo astronauts have provided encouragement and congratulations to our latest generation of those who will travel to another heavenly body.
With the advent of the space shuttles, the International Space Station and other launches into space, travel to outer space has become more ordinary and I hope that the Artemis Project will re-kindle the excitement we experienced in the 1960’s and early ‘70’s. The sense of national pride was palpable.
In any event, I have been closely following the updates to the Artemis program. Currently, it is planned that the next landing on the moon will occur by 2028. Wouldn’t that be fantastic! I was also encouraged by the items one of the astronauts will take into space. It seems that each crew member has the ability to take a small bag of personal items with them on their journey. One of the crew members has indicated the most important item he is taking is a Bible – to reflect on the grandeur of God’s creation. This isn’t so different from the Apollo 8 astronauts reading from Genesis on Christmas Eve as they orbited the moon. How could one not be consumed with awe and gratitude when witnessing the surface of the moon, as well as the fragility of the earth in the distance.
Our verse for tonight is from the creation story in Genesis. Moses, the author of Genesis, tells us in Genesis 1:16, “God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.” Of course, the greater and lesser lights refer to the sun and the moon, but the names are omitted from the narrative in the Bible. That’s because the Egyptians named all their gods and Moses wanted to point out that compared to our God (big G), the lights God created were not even worth mentioning by name. And God knows the name of every star and where it is located. In fact, the vastness of the cosmos is too grand for us to even imagine.
My encouragement this evening is that God created us to be curious and we are once again exhibiting that curiosity by exploring God’s creation beyond our own earth. My prayer is that the Artemis effort will be successful and that the crew were be protected by the hand of God, ensuring a desire to continue to explore our universe in the years and decades to come. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…