In a video shared on X by NASA, Artemis II astronaut Victor Glover said he had nothing prepared — then delivered a heartfelt meditation on creation, Earth and humanity’s unique bond.
“Trust me, you are special,” Glover said, adding, “In all of this emptiness, this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe. You have this oasis, this beautiful place we get to exist together.”
Such a mind-blowing view would have rendered most of us speechless, but not Glover.
His impromptu but profound words from orbit were a humbling reminder of our place in the cosmos — and the crew’s bravery as they ventured further from Earth than any previous mission.
It was also a reminder of a year ago, when we witnessed a brief space flight with participants who “put the ass in astronaut.”
Last April, Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sánchez donned custom curve-hugging jumpsuits from Monse for what was essentially an art-directed jaunt to space, courtesy of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin program.
Given the rare opportunity to experience a mere fraction of what the trained space pioneers of Artemis II have done, these women used it for shameless self-promotion.
They wanted the livestreamed 11-minute flight to bolster their girl-boss portfolios.
Take Perry, who, during the roughly four minutes of weightlessness, floated into the camera’s view to reveal … the setlist for her concert tour.
She then warbled “What a Wonderful World” as King proclaimed it a selfless act:
“’Cause we’ve been asking her to sing all the time and she wouldn’t. Everyone said ‘Sing “Roar,” sing “Firework,”’ and she said, ‘It’s not about me. I wanted to talk about the world.’ Isn’t that nice?”
And who could forget Perry dramatically exiting the capsule and kissing the ground? In that moment, we could all see how the feminist fantasy was playing out in their giant heads.
Instead of coming back with a humble perspective — perhaps a grand appreciation for real astronauts and their contributions to mankind — these deluded celebrities returned to terra firma convinced that they were the center of the universe.
When the public rolled its collective eyes afterward, King was particularly perturbed that she wasn’t treated like a shero.
“Please don’t call it a ‘ride.’ We duplicated the same trajectory that Alan Shepard [the first American to travel to space, in 1961] did back in the day, pretty much. No one called that a ‘ride,’” King huffed. “It was called a flight, it was called a journey. There was nothing frivolous about what we did.”
She was also ticked off that there wasn’t proper acknowledgement of what their flight “is doing to inspire other women and young girls, please don’t ignore that.”
For those fembots, it was all about the aesthetics. They were seeking personal validation, a cool photo op and, perhaps, an adrenaline rush, but not offering anything useful to the rest of us.
In sharp contrast, the historic Artemis II crew, who are expected to touch down off the coast of San Diego Friday, have exhibited real courage and selfless contributions.
The purpose of their mission was to test and shore up the systems for a future lunar landing. It’s also given us an unprecedented look at the world beyond, us both in pictures and via NASA’s livestream.
With the 32 cameras onboard, the mission has produced breathtaking images of the dark side of the moon. That part of the mission led to a communications blackout of roughly 45 minutes.
Imagine the faith needed to weather almost an hour in space without any contact with Earth.
“I said a little prayer,” Glover recalled, “but I had to keep rolling.”
Then there was Commander Reid Wiseman, who lost his wife, Carroll, to cancer in 2020. He is a single father of two daughters, who are 20 and 15.
He’s spoken about how his daughters insisted he didn’t give up on his space dream, even though they were all aware it could be dangerous. He even showed them his will in case tragedy strikes.
“That’s just a part of this life,” he said
As a family, they were brave and selfless and, yes, down to Earth.
