{"id":619984,"date":"2026-04-22T01:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/619984\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:06:10","slug":"marble-pedestal-the-faces-behind-artemis-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/619984\/","title":{"rendered":"Marble Pedestal: The faces behind Artemis II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you ever dreamt of being an astronaut? Then, this mission to return back to the moon after over 50 years may have spoken close to your heart. On April 1, NASA launched their Artemis II Mission, sending four astronauts to the moon \u2014 paving the way to Mars, unlocking mysteries, and inspiring new generations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aside from the fascinating progress found in space, the people behind this journey each serve an individual purpose and carry with them distinct stories. They truly made a history, from representation of being the \u2018firsts\u2019 to the declaration of love in space.<\/p>\n

They once dreamt of being astronauts, and now it is turning into a reality, inspiring generations that their dreams are not impossible to achieve. Take it one step at a time, and you\u2019ll get to your destination eventually.<\/p>\n

Reid Wiseman was a Navy veteran and has 16 years of astronaut expertise with six months of space experience. In this flight, he commanded Artemis II in the second flight to the Orion. But, beyond that he is also a loving father and a devoted husband.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Along their journey, the team found fresh craters on the moon that haven\u2019t been named yet. The astronauts have decided to name one lunar crater after their Commander Wiseman\u2019s late wife \u2014 Carroll.<\/p>\n

This shows pure love and devotion for his spouse. To look up to the night sky and witness how their love was honoured despite space, time, and everything in between.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRisk it All<\/a>\u201d by Bruno Mars is the perfect song for this genuine moment, with the lyrics \u201csay you want the moon, watch me learn to fly.\u201d To love someone to the moon and back, literally.<\/p>\n

Christina Koch is the very first woman to travel to the moon. Make some noise! Before this historic moment, Koch set the record for the longest single space flight flown by a woman back in 2019 as she spent 328 days aboard in the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

According to the BBC interview<\/a>, her dream to become an astronaut began when she saw a moon photograph during her childhood. Ever since then, Koch spent her years learning and waiting for this moment, now it finally came!<\/p>\n

To live in your childhood\u2019s fantasy is truly an inspiration to the younger generations. Aside from that, this raises the purpose to break the gender stigmatization \u2014 encouraging that anyone can dream, and no stereotypes can ever stop you.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Hansen is our Canadian pride, woohoo! He is the first non-American to travel to the moon, an international milestone indeed. Way before this lunar mission, Hansen was a former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot and after that, he became the first Canadian to train astronauts at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Centre.<\/p>\n

Like most realities, everything starts with a single dream. His interest with space evolved in rural Canada where his wide imagination sparked: turning a simple treehouse into a fascinating spaceship!<\/p>\n

As a father, he honours his family by taking his children and wife\u2019s birthstones with him \u2014 carrying his love for them beyond the Earth. Also, our very own and proud Canadian astronaut carries maple syrup and maple cookies on this journey, the BBC interview mentioned.<\/p>\n

Victor J. Glover flew this historic space flight and made this voyage to the moon possible! Glover is a former United States (U.S.) Navy fighter pilot and became an astronaut back in 2013 where he also served as a pilot on NASA\u2019s SpaceX Crew 1 mission. And there\u2019s more, he is the first person of colour to travel to the moon!<\/p>\n

\u201cPushing ourselves to explore is core to who we are,\u201d he said in a BBC interview. This serves as motivation to navigate and have a glimpse of the unknown. It encourages people to take a step forward into unraveling the beauty of their future, it might not be that scary after all.<\/p>\n

Most times, we fear the unknown not necessarily because it\u2019s difficult, but maybe it\u2019s just unfamiliar. Glover\u2019s universe escapade inspires us to explore the unknowns in this life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like these four inspiring individuals, each one of you has a purpose too. Whether you are in space or here on Earth \u2014 you\u2019re where you are at the right place and the right time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shine on your own, and shimmer the way the stars sparkle at night. Some might say sky\u2019s the limit, but there are footprints on the moon \u2014 so dream bigger, moon\u2019s the limit!\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you ever dreamt of being an astronaut? Then, this mission to return back to the moon after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[58777,58778,49,48,106164,232824,105501,232825,6294,106165,66,306,203250,203251,203252,81244],"class_list":{"0":"post-619984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-artemis-ii","9":"tag-astronaut","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-christina-koch","13":"tag-jerchel-angelique-calucag","14":"tag-jeremy-hansen","15":"tag-marbel-pedestal","16":"tag-moon","17":"tag-reid-wiseman","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-space","20":"tag-the-gateway","21":"tag-u-of-a","22":"tag-ualberta","23":"tag-university-of-alberta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619984","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=619984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}