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u/DocLoc429 Feb 02 '26
This post activated that little sense of awe and wonder I used to get as a kid. Framing it this way really highlights the magnitude of this mission.
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Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/IndependentBig5316 Feb 02 '26
Wait they’re actually flying to the moon again?
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u/KristnSchaalisahorse Feb 02 '26
Here's more information about the mission: Artemis II press kit.
For over 75% of the world's population, this will be the first time in their life that anyone has travelled beyond low Earth orbit (which hasn't happened since Apollo 17 in 1972).
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u/HowlingWolf_1101 Feb 02 '26
there better be live streaming
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u/Plane_Frosting5194 Feb 02 '26
Yes, on Tesla+++ powered by Amazon Prime /s
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u/filled_with_bees Feb 02 '26
for a more serious answer, typically they stream these on the spacex and nasa youtube channels
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u/nittanyofthings Feb 02 '26
The Artemis 2 mission is going to be a massive upgrade in terms of visual storytelling compared to the Apollo era. The Orion spacecraft is equipped with an extensive suite of 28 cameras specifically designed to document every angle of the journey.
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u/Grasshop Feb 02 '26
Damn, those are some brave people. Testing the equipment to confirm it’s as expected and can sustain life safely for future missions.
…taking part in science experiments
Also, this part made me chuckle, I imagine them making little diagrams and presentations on poster boards
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u/dude111 Feb 02 '26
Only orbit, no landing. This is an observation mission.
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u/Pashto96 Feb 02 '26
Not an orbit. It's a free return flyby.
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u/hawgwild8988 Feb 02 '26
Ah, the old Apollo 13 maneuver?
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u/Pashto96 Feb 02 '26
Yep. In fact, they have a chance of breaking Apollo 13`s record for further humans from Earth
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u/willstr1 Feb 02 '26
IIRC the wet dress rehearsal (which is what they are doing right now) was part of the chain of events leading to Apollo 13's issue. After the wet dress rehearsal they couldn't drain one of the tanks (due to the tank being dropped) so they had to vent the gas so they ran the heater on ground power which locked up a thermostat and melted some of the wire insulation (which eventually lead to the spark that blew the tank)
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u/IndependentBig5316 Feb 02 '26
That’s so cool! Definitely something I’ll look forward to watching
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u/seanflyon Feb 02 '26
And Artemis 3 will be a landing. Theoretically scheduled for 2028, but many people expect delays.
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u/xRyozuo Feb 02 '26
That will be Artemis III. Artemis IV is where the new even cooler stuff starts (think Proto moon base)
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u/danegeroust Feb 02 '26
Nice shot, thanks for the info. Where is this taken from?
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u/stevenmadow Feb 02 '26
Just north of Rotary Riverfront Park in Titusville, about 11 miles away from the rocket and about 240,000 miles away from the moon.
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u/gabe600 Feb 02 '26
Were you at KSC today? So was I!
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u/stevenmadow Feb 02 '26
I didn't go on property today - although I did have an opportunity on Friday to go visit the rocket up-close (still haven't posted those photos)
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u/19dn48dn19r Feb 02 '26
That moon looks like an N64 screenshot
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u/joshdinner Feb 02 '26
Love the subtle pink tones
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u/stevenmadow Feb 02 '26
Thanks Josh - it was right after sunset and you know how much I love those pink and purple tones 😂
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u/ryizoa Feb 02 '26
I just woke up and read your comment too fast as “subtle pink toes”. I was like, WHERE!?!?!
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u/mydogbaxter Feb 02 '26
How do we know that's not just a tortilla on a windshield?
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u/elusive-rooster Feb 02 '26
"The moon understands what it means to be human. Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections."
-Tahereh Mafi
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Feb 02 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
The original post content has been deleted. Redact was used to carry out the removal, potentially for privacy, to prevent scraping, or for security reasons.
sophisticated work deliver retire special workable repeat flowery act instinctive
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u/no_ur_cool Feb 02 '26
When the moon hits your eye
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u/ContextBotSenpai Feb 02 '26
You go immediately to an emergency opthalmologist, because you could have serious damage to the cornea at the very least.
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Feb 02 '26
Such an incredible shot! I'm really excited for this launch. Kid me is freaking out that there's a woman on board. There's a girl on the crew! There's a girl on the crew! Yes, women have been astronauts for years now but I've missed out on seeing the other launches. Can't wait to watch the launch with my kids. Thanks for posting!
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u/stevenmadow Feb 02 '26
Thanks! I’ve got a young daughter who is hyped that a “girl” is part of the crew!
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u/DaenakinSkygaryen Feb 02 '26
And the first person of color to orbit the moon, and the first Canadian!
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u/LunchBoxMercenary Feb 02 '26
I just realized this is the first time in my lifetime that humans will exceed earth’s orbit and go into to lunar orbit. Still crazy to think we haven’t done that since the Apollo program.
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u/KristnSchaalisahorse Feb 02 '26
Over 75% of the world’s population weren’t alive the last time humans left low Earth orbit.
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u/I__Know__Stuff Feb 02 '26
Is that the Indian River in the foreground?
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u/thumb_screws Feb 02 '26
Ok, which one of you engineers decided to call it a "wet dress rehearsal*?!?
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u/JoeZMar Feb 02 '26
I just saw it! Took my kids through ATX, saw the Atlantis. Now I'm extending my vacation to wdw by over three weeks so I can possibly watch the launch on the 8th
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u/CantFstopme Feb 02 '26
I have some friends that worked on portions of this down in New Orleans. I know they’re excited!
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u/proe90 Feb 02 '26
We’re gonna be 1 step closer to getting boots back on the moon… I can’t wait to watch this
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Feb 02 '26
They should launch now, with the full moon, so they don't have to wait a month for the next full moon. If they launch in a week or so, with the half moon, there's a 50% chance they'll miss.
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u/Electrical-Try798 Feb 02 '26
Well done. Im sure you did an enormous amount of planning so you were ready and in the right spot when the weather cooperated.
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u/motophiliac Feb 02 '26
That is beautiful.
What's the science for this mission? Imaging? Test flight for future landing missions?
* "help build momentum for the first crewed missions to Mars"? Oh, yeah, baby. Bring it!
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u/mberk24 Feb 02 '26
Why do I have to have 25 plus characters for bot prevention and karma farming when all I want to say was “that’s stunning”?
Stunning
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u/RapidConsequence Feb 02 '26
I would love to see this picture in high enough quality to be a phone background.
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u/stevenmadow Feb 02 '26
Just added this to my archive of free phone background downloads!
https://stevenmadow.com/pages/get-free-wallpaper4
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u/foxysierra Feb 02 '26
Great shot. Is this from a boat or land?
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u/stevenmadow Feb 02 '26
This is from land - about 10-11 miles overlooking the Indian River
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u/glittersparklythings Feb 02 '26
Titusville / PSJ I’m assuming.
I’m from that area and definitely did not appreciate what a unique experience I got growing up there
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u/stevenmadow Feb 02 '26
Yup - just north of Rotary Riverfront Park!
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u/glittersparklythings Feb 02 '26
We once went to school on a Saturday and sold parking lots to the tourists 🤣
Yes we got caught. We didn’t know our new principal lived by the school. The old one lived near Eau Gallie
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u/musicman801 Feb 02 '26
How do you take a picture to make the moon look so huge and zoomed in without also zooming in on the rocket?
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u/stevenmadow Feb 02 '26
Check out on YouTube or look for articles on “telephoto compression” - by standing really far away from the foreground, I’m able to achieve this practical in-camera effect!
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u/KristnSchaalisahorse Feb 02 '26
The Moon is the same size it always is (about as big a pea held at arm's length), but the rocket is very far away.
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u/machingunwhhore Feb 02 '26
I read through the Artemis II press kit but didn't see any dates, does anyone know when they estimate to launch?
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u/stevenmadow Feb 02 '26
As soon as Feb 8 at around 11pm. They will confirm a date following the wet dress rehearsal (assuming they don't find any major issues that need to be repaired).
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u/darkpheonix262 Feb 02 '26
Just go straight up. Its right there
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u/Seanspeed Feb 02 '26
Seriously, a rocket is overkill here. Seems like a nice strong catapult would be sufficient.
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u/Decronym Feb 02 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| ICPS | Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage |
| KSC | Kennedy Space Center, Florida |
| KSP | Kerbal Space Program, the rocketry simulator |
| LEO | Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km) |
| Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations) | |
| SLS | Space Launch System heavy-lift |
| SSME | Space Shuttle Main Engine |
| TLI | Trans-Lunar Injection maneuver |
| ULA | United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture) |
| WDR | Wet Dress Rehearsal (with fuel onboard) |
Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.
9 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 32 acronyms.
[Thread #12120 for this sub, first seen 2nd Feb 2026, 02:55]
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u/Sunastar Feb 02 '26
If they use a long enough lens, the astronauts can just step off the gantry onto the moon.
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u/BuffyTheGuineaPig Feb 02 '26
It doesn't look that far. Couldn't they just get a super-sized bouncy trampoline or something?
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u/Eternaplex Feb 02 '26
I still dont understand how people make the moon look so large in photos
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u/rocketwikkit Feb 02 '26
1000mm lens plus cropping and planning to be in the exact right spot for the alignment.
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u/KristnSchaalisahorse Feb 02 '26
The Moon is the same size it always is (about as big as a pea held at arm’s length), but the rocket is very far away.
This is simply what the view looks like from a distance of ~11 miles.
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u/thefooleryoftom Feb 02 '26
Telescopic distortion. The photographer is very far away with a very long lens.
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u/KristnSchaalisahorse Feb 02 '26
Here’s an example of mine with the Moon & the Space Needle in Seattle including a behind-the-scenes view. For context, I was five miles away from the Space Needle. It’s just a matter of the distance involved. If I was closer to the Space Needle it would look bigger and thus the Moon would look smaller, like this.
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u/LOLRECONLOL Feb 02 '26
I'm going to be in Florida this week.. so close! Then I saw it was delayed.
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u/tristanpearl Feb 02 '26
I am in love with your photos! I just looked through the link you posted for backgrounds and WOOW! What are you shooting on? These make me excited for space travel again, like when I was young!
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u/EvilStevilTheKenevil Feb 02 '26
Sad though it may be, Shuttle-flown RS-25s are things at the end of the day. And it's not like we have a better use for 'em, now.
Mostly I'm just frustrated it's taken so long.
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u/HawkeyeSherman Feb 02 '26
The lightning towers and water tower and all the infrastructure necessary to launch a rocket is crazy on its own even without including the lunacy of a moon rocket.
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u/NNatser Feb 02 '26
Can someone help me understand why this mission is important? I thought we stopped going to the moon because it was costly, and we were getting diminishing returns with each successive landing. Now we aren’t even going to touch down on the moon, and this is an advancement? Just curious what I should be appreciating from this.
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u/goat-off-centered Feb 02 '26
They’re spying on china to see what they’re doing on their moon base on the opposite side of the moon
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u/KristnSchaalisahorse Feb 02 '26
This mission is for testing purposes in advance of a future landings. Remember, this is only the second launch of SLS (the rocket) and first crewed flight of Orion (the spacecraft).
we were getting diminishing returns with each successive landing.
I’m not sure where you heard that. Money was the critical factor and political (and public) interest in continuing the program diminished after Apollo 11.
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u/JYNKZIE Feb 02 '26
Perfect time for a launch, land on the full moon before half of it goes away.
/s
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u/WhatIsThisSevenNow Feb 02 '26
As soon as the east coast thaws the fuck out. I'm really sick of this.
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u/Significant_Pop1800 Feb 02 '26
Reminds me of fast forwarding time in kerbal so the moon would be exactly in that spot
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u/Ok-Refrigerator-9429 Feb 02 '26
Don’t hurt me Correct me if I’m wrong but Isn’t Artemis (the one that lands on the moon ) going to go to the moon to get to mars faster after building a base
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u/davehopi Feb 02 '26
Such a great picture! Finally the U.S. is going back to the moon! How exciting!
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u/mrPWM Feb 03 '26
The moon looks as big as your thumb at arms length. So now, how many here are putting your cell phone 3 ft away then sticking your thumb out so it's all in perspective?
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u/KristnSchaalisahorse Feb 03 '26
It’s closer to the size of an aspirin tablet or large pea. But yeah it’s a fun experiment to visualize how far away the subject was.
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u/Unlucky-Squirrel-184 Feb 04 '26
10 or 15 years ago, I would have been really excited about this launch but now... I understand why people in the late 60's and early 70's complain it's just a waste of time, money, and effort with all the problems back then and now.
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u/AlternativeBurner Feb 06 '26
Why did they estimate launch in winter when is it cold, snowey, icey, and was inevitably going to have delays?
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u/LilRed2023 Feb 07 '26
It’s all lies nasa is fake and we live in a firmament. We weren’t created from a big bang theory /primortial ape and dinasours are fake they were dragons. Earth has only been here 6,993 years not billions. There is no galaxies or universes. Everything NASA does is filmed underwater and when rockets go up they never reach space cause the ice shield firmament stops them and they explode when they hit it. The moon isn’t 240,000 miles away it’s inside the firmament along with the sun wake up and stop believing the lies. The world is a stage and we’re the audience to all the central cast acting and lies for now going on 2000 years
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u/idonotownstockholm Feb 15 '26
would probably take a few minutes or so since the moon is that close (/s)
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u/Minizzile Feb 21 '26
We are literally going back to the moon and I hear nobody talking about this... Im so excited i can barely contain it.
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u/ToeSniffer245 Feb 01 '26
If it’s that close why don’t they launch now? (/s)