I'm excited about the #Artemis 2 mission, and also remind myself how much less ambitious of a mission it is than Apollo 8 was; closest approach of Artemis will be ~6500 KM (further than mainland USA is wide) as it flies by.

[wtl@mastodon.social]

I'm excited about the #Artemis 2 mission, and also remind myself how much less ambitious of a mission it is than Apollo 8 was; closest approach of Artemis will be ~6500 KM (further than mainland USA is wide) as it flies by. Apollo 8 orbited the moon ten times at an altitude of around 120 KM.

Yes, four people instead of three, plus a bunch of extra science. Hopefully, it's the start of something cool.