Space mission proves once again that anything is possible

For 10 days, NASA’s Artemis II mission captivated the nation and the world.

Never before has mankind traveled so far from home as three Americans and one Canadian astronaut ventured to the dark side of the moon. After a dramatic splashdown in the Pacific on Friday, hurtling at speeds of 25,000 mph into Earth’s atmosphere, they emerged safely from the tiny space vessel as heroes representing a new dawn of exploration.

Their work not only documented a place no man had ever put eyes upon, it set the stage for bigger and bolder ventures ahead.

Northwest Montana can be proud to have played a part in the historic mission, with two aerospace engineers from the Flathead Valley contracted by NASA to work on the project.

Systems engineering manager Daniel Baca is a Kalispell native, and aerospace engineer Jeremiah Hall is from Olney and Whitefish. Both worked on the unmanned Artemis I test flight in 2022 prior to joining the Artemis II team. Last week, they watched from the Kennedy Space Center in nervous awe as the four astronauts launched into the cosmos — thanks in part to their lives’ work.

“I don’t normally get emotional,” Hall said about the launch countdown. “But it was — it was pretty intense.”

“It’s terrifying and thrilling at the same time.”

Both can finally breathe a sigh of relief with the crew’s safe return home.

Everyone involved in the Artemis II mission — from the space crew to the preflight engineers and mechanics on the ground — showed us how boldness and determination can stretch the imagination of what’s possible.

It’s been 53 years since humanity completed the first lunar mission. As we set sights on a 2028 moon landing, and eventually Mars, the words of President John F. Kennedy in the leadup to the 1969 Apollo 11 mission still resonate.

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” he said in his 1962 speech.

“Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, “Because it is there. Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.”

More than half a century later, Artemis II has untied us once again as we do what’s hard and dream of conquering the impossible.