{"id":591662,"date":"2026-04-09T03:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T03:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/591662\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T03:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T03:38:08","slug":"from-vaughan-to-the-moon-starry-eyed-superfan-tracks-the-artemis-ii-lunar-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/591662\/","title":{"rendered":"From Vaughan to the moon: Starry-eyed superfan tracks the Artemis II lunar mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Space enthusiast Gabriella Lamberti with her telescope outside her home in Vaughan, Ont., on Tuesday.Photography by Fred Lum\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

In the depths of the pandemic, five-year-old Gabriella Lamberti was cooped up with her mom in their Vaughan, Ont., home, searching the internet for boredom-busters, when something on the NASA<\/a> website caught her eye.<\/p>\n

Drawn in by the distinctive blue, red and white insignia, she couldn\u2019t resist the urge to explore. She joined a live video Q&A with an astronaut-in-training: Jeremy Hansen. <\/p>\n

For several minutes, she spoke to Mr. Hansen about the moon and the stars, launching an interest in space that has since blossomed into a full-blown obsession. Gabriella, now 10, pores over the NASA website, devours space books and builds rocket ships out of cardboard boxes. Or marshmallows and toothpicks. Or a plastic fort kit.<\/p>\n

Last week, as she watched Mr. Hansen board a real rocket as part of the Artemis II mission and become the first Canadian to reach deep space, she felt a personal connection. <\/p>\n

Carney talks inspiration and teamwork in call with astronaut Jeremy Hansen<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really cool with all the smoke and fire when they go up,\u201d Gabriella said. \u201cHe\u2019s breaking records, so obviously, I feel excited.\u201d <\/p>\n

That wonder is shared by many Canadians who have been tuning in from coast-to-coast to track Mr. Hansen\u2019s mission since the crew blasted off<\/a> from NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1. <\/p>\n

American astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman round out the crew onboard the mission\u2019s Orion spacecraft. They will spend 10 days observing and photographing the moon before a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday. <\/p>\n

The mission marks the first time humans have travelled around the moon since 1972. It serves as a test for future lunar exploration, with the goal of putting boots on the moon as soon as 2028. <\/p>\n

After school on Tuesday, the NASA livestream glowed from the TV in the centre of Gabriella\u2019s living room. She\u2019s been obsessively tracking the mission on YouTube and the NASA website.<\/p>\n

When Gabriella saw Mr. Hansen on TV before the launch, she recognized him immediately. She told her mom, Vittoria Lamberti, \u201cI think he\u2019s wearing the exact same suit he wore five years ago.\u201d <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Vittoria Lamberti shows a photo of Gabriella speaking to astronaut Jeremy Hansen.<\/p>\n

Gabriella is contemplating a career as a rocket scientist, aerospace engineer or capsule communicator in NASA\u2019s mission control. <\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I\u2019m scared of being an astronaut … but I think building it would be really cool,\u201d Gabriella said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hansen is inspiring Gabriella to face her fear. \u201cHe\u2019s not scared of space,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I ever overcome it, I want to go to Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The red planet\u2019s appeal is in its uncharted territory. Gabriella wants to build robots, such as Mars rovers, and adventure where no earthling has gone before \u2013 as long as she doesn\u2019t find aliens. She hopes there isn\u2019t life on Mars, but predicts that humans will be there soon. <\/p>\n

What we learned from the Artemis II mission and what comes next<\/a><\/p>\n

The precocious fifth grader is an astronomical encyclopedia, often spouting tidbits from the NASA website, and teaching her mom more than a thing or two. \u201cI\u2019m more invested than she is,\u201d Gabriella said. \u201cI\u2019m also really happy because I know more.\u201d <\/p>\n

She does have other interests, including tending to family bunnies Alfredo and Apollo (named after the Greek god, not the lunar mission), and playing soccer, which she makes clear always comes second to science.<\/p>\n

Ms. Lamberti hopes her daughter\u2019s passion for space and penchant for science continue throughout her life, but she\u2019s apprehensive about launching Gabriella into the atmosphere. \u201cI don\u2019t know about an astronaut, but I do think she has what it takes to be an engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Artemis II crew lost contact with Earth for about 40 minutes on Monday as they looped behind the moon, observing never-before-seen parts of the lunar surface, just hours after setting a record for the furthest distance humans have ever travelled from home. <\/p>\n

After historic flyby, Canada looks to its next role in space missions<\/a><\/p>\n

Typically talkative Gabriella went quiet on the couch while the Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, lost communication during the planned blackout. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was scary,\u201d she said, breathing a sigh of relief when the crew came back online. \u201cYou don\u2019t know if they\u2019re okay or not, because no one\u2019s done this before, so you don\u2019t really know what to expect.\u201d <\/p>\n

Integrity is set to splash down on April 10, re-entering the Earth\u2019s atmosphere at about 40,000 kilometres an hour, protected from scorching temperatures of up to 2,760 degrees by a thin heat shield that proved unreliable on the unmanned Artemis I mission in 2022. Gabriella knows the stakes are high for Friday\u2019s splashdown, but she\u2019s confident in the crew. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be tough. They have to make sure they\u2019re getting a lot of things right,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have to nail it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Space enthusiast Gabriella Lamberti with her telescope outside her home in Vaughan, Ont.,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-591662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-ca","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-foreign-news","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-science","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}