Artemis II and Hope

Just a few days ago, on April 10, 2026, four astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, completing a nearly 10-day journey that carried them farther from our planet than any human being has ever traveled. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, flew 252,756 miles from Earth—surpassing the distance record set by the crew of Apollo 13 more than 50 years ago. 

They circled the Moon. They came home. And the world watched every moment. 

Fun fact: My grandfather, Albert Siepert, was Deputy Director of the Kennedy Space Center, then called Cape Canaveral, during the Saturn and Apollo programs and sneaked a six-month-old Mike Davis into his office for the Apollo 11 launch.

What happened up there

Artemis II, launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1 aboard NASA’s Space Launch System, was the most powerful rocket ever flown, generating 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. Over the next 10 days, the crew tested the spacecraft’s life support systems for the first time with humans aboard, manually piloted the capsule to practice future docking maneuvers, and conducted a breathtaking lunar flyby, passing just 4,067 miles above the Moon’s surface.

During that flyby on April 6, the crew captured more than 7,000 images, including striking views of ancient craters, Earthrise and Earthset, a solar eclipse seen from lunar distance, and the terminator line where lunar day meets night. These images are not merely beautiful. Scientists will use them to closely map the terrain near the lunar South Pole, where the Artemis III crew is scheduled to land in 2028.

The crew named their spacecraft “Integrity.” That word, chosen deliberately by four people preparing to trust their lives to thousands of systems, carries real weight. It speaks to how they approached every moment of the mission, and it is not a bad word for our school community to hold onto as well.

A mission of historic firsts

Artemis II was the first crewed mission to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972. Many of you know that I love to have a historical music reference and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and “Life on Mars” have been on heavy rotation.
The lyrics of  “Space Oddity” capture both the wonderment of space, but also the isolation. I just marvel at the courage of these astronauts. They undoubtedly felt that isolation during that 4-minute blackout period when they were orbiting on the dark side of the moon.

This mission also carried the first woman and the first person of color to travel to lunar distance. Christina Koch and Victor Glover did not simply participate in history; they expanded who history belongs to. (Note: You may want to read up on Ed White, whom JFK wanted to break the color barrier in the Space Program, but who faced incredible racism after Kennedy’s assassination and left the program.)

Why this matters for our students

At Colorado Academy, we talk often about preparing students for lives of purpose and impact and for futures that do not yet fully exist. Artemis II is a window into exactly that kind of future. The engineers who built Orion’s life support systems, the flight directors who managed each burn and trajectory correction, the scientists now analyzing lunar photographs—many of them are in their 20s and 30s. Some of them were in middle school when the Artemis program was announced.

Our students may be inspired by this mission and could grow up to be part of future space exploration—not a career so much as a calling. Advancements in space require exactly the kind of creative, rigorous, collaborative thinkers we are working every day to develop at CA. Our Pre-K students certainly got into the story of Artemis II and were excited to learn about the space mission. Miles, a First Grader, visited the Pre-K classroom to share what he has learned about rovers, and it energizes me to see how engaged our students were.  We also have two amazing Seniors, Taylor and Augie, who are headed to USC and Georgia Tech to study Astrophysics and Aerospace Engineering!

But the lesson of Artemis II is not only for students who dream of aerospace. Mission Specialist Christina Koch’s reflection on the crew resonates far beyond the cockpit of Orion. She said, “A crew is a group that is in it all the time, no matter what—that is stroking together every minute with the same purpose, that is willing to sacrifice silently for each other, that gives grace, that holds accountable.” That is a description of what we aspire to build in every classroom, every team, every ensemble, every lab at Colorado Academy.

On hope

We live in a moment when it is easy to feel weighed down by difficulty. The headlines, the complexity, the pace of change—these things are real. I do not want to minimize them. But I also believe deeply that hope is not naïve. Hope is a discipline. And missions like Artemis II are evidence that the discipline pays off.

This week, I encourage you to watch the footage of the Artemis II crew emerging from the capsule if you haven’t seen it. Watch the faces of the recovery teams. Watch Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen speak about love and what he called the “joy train,” the commitment to get back to joy as quickly as possible, no matter what. And then look at the students around you—in our hallways, in your homes, and find that joy! 

We are educating the Artemis generation. It is a responsibility. And it fills me with something that, at least this week, I am happy to call hope.