Comments

  2. StevoR says

    Superluminous news! (Beyond just brilliant.)

    Been hoping to see this happen all my life and a ray of hope and reminder of the extraordinary good things we Humans can build and fly at our best! Loving this.

    Aussie ABC news has live blog updates here :

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-02/artemis-ii-launch-abc-live-blog-moon-mission/106513102

    FWIW.

    Oh and despite the Trumpists loathing of Diversity Equality & Inclusion the first African -American & first women are now headed Moonwards too. (Well almost now – currently orbiting Earth -stillneed the Trasnlunar injection burn but still.)

  3. birgerjohansson says

    Even if I am less impressed – remembering the Apollo launches I watched, and the heroic accomplishments of early NASA – I understand that this and other manned missions to the Moon are necessary if NASA is going to get the budget for the more important uncrewed missions, like launching telescopes that can find terrestrial planets near sun-like stars.
    .
    And it is nice to watch a rocket that is not designed to kill someone.
    .
    I wish NASA had provided more data in the TV coverage, like elapsed time, speed, altitude and horizontal distance travelled. Also commentary about stage separations and other events coming up.

    It is a lot of things happening, crammed into a very short time. NASA is underselling itself by not trying to explain to the viewers what they get for their tax dollars while events are unfolding.
    Meanwhile, Space X provides a lot of information (and on-board camera footage).
    I don’t want NASA to be in the shadow of space Karen.

  4. John Morales says

    Space Karen, eh?
    Good going, Birger.
    Shows who you are.

    Karen is a pejorative slang term typically used to refer to a middle class woman who is perceived as entitled or excessively demanding.[1] The term is often portrayed in memes depicting middle-class white women who use their white and class privilege to demand their own way.[1][2] Depictions include demanding to “speak to the manager”, being racist, or wearing a particular bob cut hairstyle.[3] It was popularized in the aftermath of the Central Park birdwatching incident in 2020, when a woman called the police during a disagreement over the requirement for her dog to be leashed in an area of the park.[2]
     
    The term has been criticized by some as racist, sexist, ageist, classist, and controlling women’s behavior.[3] The term has occasionally been applied to male behavior.[3][4]

  6. John Morales says

    [meta]

    StevoR: Felon Musk is worse than a space Karen – he’s a Space Nazi.

    The referent is SpaceX.

    From you, who has often tried to separate SpaceX from its founder and boss regarding merits, it’s rather rich.

    Now you fucking do the same thing you railed against: using both interchangeably.

    Shows who you are, too.

    (I should not by now be disappointed by that, though I sort of am. I had hoped for better from you)

  7. StevoR says

    Intresting footnote to this mission here, the first African-American lunar astronaut Victor Glover :

    …also told a group of reporters about his weekly tradition: Every Monday, he listens to “Whitey on the Moon” on the way to work at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

    Glover happens to be Black. And now he’s going to the moon. …(snip)…

    “It’s funny, because that Space Symposium caused me a lot of grief in the next months because people tried to quote me out of context,” Glover told me in an interview last September. “And it ain’t about racism. It’s about the human condition.”

    “Whitey on the Moon” is a spoken-word poem by Gil Scott-Heron published and set to music in 1970. It recounts the challenges of doctor bills, taxes and high rent for Black Americans at a time when the U.S. was spending billions to send astronauts to the moon and beat the Soviet Union during the Cold War space race.

    Source linked here : https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/03/30/infinite-thread-xxxix/comment-page-1/#comment-2296949

    Altho’ as noted by #73 whheydt the amount would be a rounde d error if diverted to social welfare anyhow. We can do both.

  8. StevoR says

    @ 6. John Morales : Musk is a (space) nazi and it was Musk who was being referred to by birgerjohansson.

    SpaceX the company are NOT nazis altho’ Musk owns them. SpaceX’s mission & purpose, their raison d’être, is advancing rocketry and space exploration science. A practical scientific & NOT a political ideological mission.

    I’ve made that distinction in the past and still think it holds and was specifically referring to Musk in my #5. As noted before many times, I wish someone else would take over and run SpaceX since I hate Musk but love SpaceX’s work and achievements. I’ve made that pretty clear before and thought it was clear enough there but for the record, well, see above.

    I think the confusion of meaning there was yours not mine but anyhow hope this clariifies it.

  9. John Morales says

    StevoR, much as I don’t like kicking kitties and puppies, I feel I should chide you.

    “We can do both.”

    Clearly, since “we” are doing both. Duh.
    If we are doing both, obviously we can do both.

    (Inanity to the max!)

    —

    Musk is a (space) nazi and it was Musk who was being referred to by birgerjohansson.

    No. He is neither a Nazi or a space. He is a bloke. You don’t like him, fair enough.
    He cares not about you, does not even know your feeble insults. That’s the asymmetry.

    And no. Birger is specifically referring to SpaceX.
    “Other operators” being the operative phrase, here: “I wish NASA had provided more data in the TV coverage, like elapsed time, speed, altitude and horizontal distance travelled. Also commentary about stage separations and other events coming up.”
    There (the other thread where Lynna can’t cope with my not dialling it down): “I am used to other operators providing on-screen data about velocity, altitude et cetera but NASA only provided elapsed time.”

    “SpaceX the company are NOT nazis altho’ Musk owns them.”

    Yeah. Like that, is your equivocal vacillation. Obvious as fuck.

    I think the confusion of meaning there was yours not mine but anyhow hope this clariifies it.

    Oh yes, space Karen. Female-coded attempted insult. Your call.

    —

    PS “I wish someone else would take over and run SpaceX since I hate Musk but love SpaceX’s work and achievements.”

    Since Musk founded the fucking enterprise and has run it ever since, you love the work and achievements he created.

    (Logic, can you even)

  11. John Morales says

    [meta]

    stuffin, be aware your link has embedded trackers. Microsoft network does that.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nasa-confirms-groundbreaking-toilet-aboard-artemis-ii-is-immediately-broken/vi-AA1ZXhqD is the actual URL.

    The added parameters (after the ampersand) are ocid the source channel (Edge/News tab), pc product/platform code, cvid the correlation‑vector session/click ID for telemetry, and ei the experiment/UI variant; all Microsoft tracking and A/B‑testing identifiers automatically appended to MSN links.

    Obs, I stripped them before checking your adduced link. Because I don’t like to be tracked or adding to their database about what punters share from them.

    (They do rely on the clueless)

  12. John Morales says

    [ack, just noticed on refresh; after the question mark the parameters start — the ampersand is the key value pair separator.
    I was too inattentive there. In my dotage, alas]

  13. mordred says

    The little kid who was glued to the screen for the space shuttle launches probably would not have believed how indifferent his older version would be about this launch.

    Even for the unmanned test I had the live stream running while at work.

    Now, looking at the absurdity of the whole project, with no lander currently ready and the projects for them in development by two greedy fascist tech bros, and everything else going on in the world, I just can’t care.

    The orange pimple’s bragging about the launch and “his” other “achievements” adds the rotten cherry to the pile of shit.

  14. StevoR says

    @ ^ mordred : Well, that’s a shame and not sentiments I share. Personally I’m loving this and all the more so perhaps because its such a contrast between the other bad news and grimness in the world and this which is wonderful science, engineeering and showing the very best people can do instead of our worst.

    Its provding a good and necessary for mental health distraction from the other horrible news right now. I don’t think I’m alone in that.

  15. John Morales says

    StevoR,

    “Its provding a good and necessary for mental health distraction from the other horrible news right now.”

    For some, perhaps. That distraction may be necessary for you, but it’s only a distraction to such as need it.

    I myself am not in any way distracted.
    And, obs, no distraction does not detract from the demonstrable.

    Feel free to tell me more about how Felon Musk is worse than a space Karen – he’s a Space Nazi. is something about which you are distracted, even though you post about it.

    “I don’t think I’m alone in that.”

    If you were distracted, you’d not be complaining and imagining.

    —

    But sure. Don’t search for how much this stupid Middle East war is costing. Its consequences.
    All that shit. That’s reality.

    Instead, be distracted by this fly-by.

    (Whooo!)

  16. says

    I honestly didn’t know the mission was manned until after the launch. Still don’t care. More than anything Musk has made space so uncool I would rather watch a documentary about earthworms.

  17. John Morales says

    Erlend: “I honestly didn’t know the mission was manned until after the launch.”

    Ahem:
    Christina Hammock Koch
    Mission Specialist

    It is crewed, not merely ‘manned’.

    (That ‘u’ is handy: uncrewed, unmanned)

  18. fernando says

    I was so nervous, because of the earlier news about hydrogen leakage during a test.
    And now im very happy that all is going well, wishing that the astronauts can complete their mission and return safely (priority to return safely).

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