NASA is going back to the Moon, and Curious Universe is bringing podcast listeners along for the Artemis II journey. Releasing weekly, this five-part companion podcast shares exclusive astronaut interviews and immersive field recordings from unique locations across the agency, revealing the incredible teamwork, passion, and problem-solving fueling humanity’s return to the Moon, and beyond.[MUSIC: “I Want to Be An Astronaut” by Alan D. Boyd]
APOLLO 8 ARCHIVAL: Transmission is coming to you approximately halfway between the Moon and the Earth. It’s a beautiful, beautiful view.
CHARLIE BLACKWELL-THOMPSON: I was just a kid in grade school at the end of the Apollo program, and I remember watching those moon landings with my classmates…
APOLLO 11 ARCHIVAL: Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed. Roger Tranquility, we copy you on the ground.
CHARLIE: …and being so intrigued, so curious, so inspired.
APOLLO 11 ARCHIVAL: That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
CHARLIE: Apollo made the world stop and look.
APOLLO 17 ARCHIVAL: And as we leave the Moon and Taurus-Littrow, we leave it we came and God willing as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.
CHARLIE BLACKWELL-THOMPSON: And I think that Artemis will do the same thing. The world will stop and look up in wonder, in intrigue, and will feel a sense of accomplishment.
[MUSIC: “Fast Motion Orchestra” by Laurent Levesque]
ARTEMIS I ARCHIVAL: And here we go. Hydrogen burn off…
VICTOR GLOVER: Pushing ourselves to explore is just core to who we are. That’s a part of being a human.
ARTEMIS I ARCHIVAL: Core stage engine start.
VICTOR GLOVER: We want to know what’s out there just beyond the horizon, and so the Artemis program is our opportunity.
ARTEMIS I LAUNCH ARCHIVAL: And liftoff of Artemis I. We rise together back to the Moon and beyond.
REID WISEMAN: At a high level, the Artemis II mission launches out of Kennedy Space Center on the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft, and the crew will travel two orbits around Earth and then head on to the Moon, 250,000 miles from Earth. There’s only one primary goal of Artemis II, is to prepare this spacecraft for Artemis III and for our NASA astronauts to go land on the …
