Sunday Times editorial: Artemis II mission an uplifting moment in gloomy times

For Australians of a more mature age, the memory remains strong to this day.

On July 21, 1969, US astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the Moon.

The Apollo 11 mission also carried Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, the second human to step on to the Moon, and Michael Collins, the command module pilot.

What was little known at the time, but has become more widely known in the years since the landing, was WA’s role in the historic 1969 journey. The NASA space tracking station at Carnarvon was a crucial link in the worldwide network of tracking stations that enabled the mission’s crew to stay in constant contact with Earth.

Due to its location, it was the last station to make contact with the crew before they left the Earth’s atmosphere, giving the Apollo the “go” signal that sent the craft’s final rocket blasting out of the Earth’s orbit.

Its location meant it was also the only station able to track the returning crew directly for most of the final three hours of re-entry to Earth.

The magnitude of that mission is even more impressive when it is considered how technology and science has advanced in the nearly 60 years since that time.

Space flights continued afterwards and were not without their setbacks and disasters.

In January 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch, killing seven astronauts. Millions of people around the world saw the tragedy on television. In February 2003 the shuttle Columbia broke up minutes before it was due to land and all seven astronauts on board perished.

But man’s quest to explore the skies remained, and even became almost routine with astronauts living at the International Space Station for prolonged periods and a commercial space-flight industry sending people into low Earth orbit.

But Artemis II has recaptured the magic of the early missions and provided an uplifting moment in gloomy times. Its historic 10-day journey saw four astronauts loop around the Moon — for the first time since the Apollo era — and propel people further into space than ever before.

It was a crucial first step in an ambitious program to eventually return people to the lunar surface, build a base there and use it as a stepping stone to push deeper into the solar system.

Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, helped mission control in Houston stay in radio communication with the crew via the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex and other facilities.

Artemis III, planned for 2027, will test operations and systems to dock with landers being made by SpaceX and Blue Origin. Artemis IV in 2028 is expected to take humans on to the Moon again.

The missions will fire the imaginations and ambitions of children around the globe. Here in Australia those ambitions may revolve around emulating Katherine Bennell-Pegg, who became the first person to become an astronaut under Australia’s space program and is the 2026 Australian of the Year. Perhaps one day an Australian flag will be seen on a space suit on the Moon.