Reflections on Power: Artemis II’s 2026 space odyssey: a brief reminiscence
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By John C. Wohlstetter
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft with astronauts Reid
Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, explorer and engineer; and Jeremy
Hansen, mission specialist.
NASA’s Orion spacecraft, as members of the agency’s Land and Recovery team, perform hazard
checks after recovering the spacecraft into the well deck of the USS John P. Murtha in the Pacific
Ocean.
The Gemini-VII spacecraft as seen from the Gemini-VI-A spacecraft during their rendezvous
mission in space on December 16, 1965.
It is hard to overstate how much America’s latest space trip means to those of us who remember
when the former Soviet Union’s October 4, 1957, launch of Sputnik (which means “traveling
companion”) ignited (literally) the “Space Race.” Sunday, October 5, 1957, less than five months
into my 11th year, marked my personal entrance into the world of public affairs; I read every
article in the Sunday New York Times on Sputnik and its ramifications.
In 2003, I published an article after the Columbia space capsule disintegrated during re-entry,
noting that the shuttle was based on what was, in 2003, 30-year-old technology. My piece
included a first-person account of what it was like to see America’s first satellite launched into
orbit, the February 20, 1962, flight of Friendship 7:
About 40 of my fellow high-school students and I crowded into a small dormitory room to watch
Friendship 7’s morning lift-off. Callow we were, but we grasped the enormous risk John Glenn
was taking, sitting atop a huge Roman candle. Yet we were comforted, knowing that the
machinery on the Cape Canaveral launch pad was the very best America could give its intrepid
space explorers…
Had John Glenn been left to face his 1962 launch with 30-year-old rocket technology, he might
easily have risen higher by riding an elevator to the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building.
America can — and should — do much better by its space heroes.
Space race: 1958-68
Myriad events were crammed into these years. The USSR led with many milestones. It launched
Sputnik II in November 1958, weighing 1,120 pounds and carrying a space dog named Laika,
which means “barking” in Russian. Sputnik III was launched on May 15, 1958, a 3,000-pound.
behemoth.
On January 2, 1959, Lunik 2 (a Western coinage combining the Latin luna for Moon with the
suffix ik for Sputnik) crashed into the surface of the Moon. On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri
Gagarin became the first man in space, circling the globe once in Vostok 1. (Vostok means
“east.”) June 1963 saw the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, in Vostok 6, complete 48
Earth orbits. On March 18, 1965, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk, lasting 12
minutes and nine seconds outside Voshkod 2. (Voshkod means “sunrise,” “rising,” or “ascent.”) In
1966, Lunik 9 made the first soft landing on the Moon.
Trailing U.S. milestones began with the January 31, 1958, launch of America’s first orbiting
satellite, Explorer I. Though at 31 pounds (it was one-sixth the weight of Sputnik’s 185 pounds),
it yielded the first consequential scientific discovery: two Van Allen radiation belts, one that
extends from an altitude of about 600 to 3,700 miles above the Earth’s surface, and the other
from about 9,300 to 15,500 miles. Astronaut Ed White made America’s first spacewalk on June
3, 1965, as part of the U.S. Gemini 4 mission. (As all Gemini satellites carried two astronauts,
NASA chose the Latin for “twins.”)
One major concern was the military implications of satellite launches: These were evidence of
the capability to launch ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles). The USSR tested the
world’s first ICBM on August 21, 1957; it was designed to carry a thermonuclear warhead
weighing six tons and to fly 5,500 miles. The U.S. tested its first ICBM, the Atlas, in December
1957; the missile was declared operational in September 1959, but its payload was less than two
tons, greatly limiting potential warhead yield.
This military cost/payload equation flipped with the first launch of Elon Musk’s Starship Heavy
rocket:
Right now, the cheapest launch platform in the world is Falcon Heavy, at about $1,500 a
kilogram, or $700 a pound, to reach low Earth orbit — compared with more than $10,000 a
kilogram for competitors…
Starship will make it possible to use low Earth orbit as a parking lot for a giant space-based
arsenal. This would allow the U.S. to pre-position conventional munitions with ablation shields
and inertial guidance systems to strike anywhere on Earth within minutes. Putting tens of
thousands of small munitions into orbit would become cost-effective, by my estimate, at around
$100 a kilogram…
New kinds of strikes would become feasible. Imagine a strike package of thousands of 200-pound
bombs, each landing precisely at the same time on electric grid sites, government buildings,
railway crossings, border stations and road intersections — without putting planes or military
personnel at risk.
Enter Apollo: 1969-1972
The Apollo program’s crewed missions that successfully landed on the Moon were Apollo 11,
12, 14, 15, 16, and 17. An onboard fire forced Apollo 13 to abort before reaching the Moon.
America remains the only country to place men on the Moon. (Apollo was named for the multi-
faceted Greek deity.)
Low-Earth orbit: Skylab, Soyuz, shuttles and stations: 1973-2025
NASA’s Skylab (1973-1979) inaugurated an era of regularized space exploration. Apollo-Soyuz
(Russian meaning “union” or “alliance”) added superpower diplomacy; the International Space
Station (ISS, 2010 to present) added widespread multinational space station exploration.
NASA’s 135 space shuttle missions (1981-2011) failed to make space travel routine, and they
included the heart-wrenching 1986 Challenger and 2003 Columbia tragedies.
My melancholy weekend: 1985
In August 1985, I went to Titusville, Fla., to witness the launch of the Discovery Space Shuttle.
Our group was at the closest permitted spectator location, a mere three miles from the launch
pad. Alas, a squall near the launch window caused the flight to be postponed, and the next day, a
backup software crash at T-9 led to a second postponement.
Enter Artemis: 2022-2028
At long last, on April 1, 2026, 53+ years since America’s — and the world’s — last visit to the
Moon, and 58+ years since the space race began, Artemis II restarted the exploration of deep
space. Named for another multi-faceted Greek deity, NASA’s Artemis program began with the
2022 launch of Artemis I. After Artemis II’s recent launch, Artemis III will test components in
low-Earth orbit, and Artemis IV and V will land on the Moon. Key motivators for lunar
exploration include business projects and the development of a base for Mars missions. NASA’s
website provides articles and images for Artemis II; the Orion capsule made the first space-to-
space call to the ISS.
In 1865, Jules Verne’s novel, From the Earth to the Moon, imagined a Moon mission, 104 years
before Apollo 11. His fictional space capsule was launched from Florida by a monster cannon
that propelled the spaceship 12,000 yards per second, equal to 6.8 miles per second, nearly the
exact velocity needed to escape Earth’s gravity. In Verne’s 1870 sequel, Around the Moon, the
capsule returned to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. Neil Armstrong paid tribute to
Verne during Apollo 11’s 1969 flight, and upon Orion’s return on April 10, NASA announced:
Splashdown confirmed at … 5:07 p.m. Pacific Time, from the pages of Jules Verne to a modern-
day mission to the Moon, a new chapter of the exploration of our celestial neighbor is
complete.” To match Verne’s 1865 crystal ball, we must foresee human space activities in 2130.
John C. Wohlstetter is a senior fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute and the
Washington, D.C.-based Gold Institute for International Strategy. He is the author of
“Presidential Succession: Constitution, Congress and National Security” (3rd ed., 2026), slated
for publication later this year.
