Who else besides me is excited about the Artemis I launch on Monday?  

I'm definitely looking forward to it!

I am, but being on the West Cost I'll have to get up very early. I visited the Cape Canaveral complex back in 2017 and took the special tour. One of the most amazing experiences of my life because I got to see where so much history had been made.

Webb continues to give spectacular images of things near and far. I really like this image of Neptune along with its rings and moons.

I enjoy watching night launches - but I didn't stay up late to watch the Artemis I launch overnight. However, there are numerous places to watch it online.

If you're curious as to where the spacecraft is now, NASA offers a tracker similar to the one for JWST.  It's just over 17 hours after launch but it is already over 92,000 miles from earth.

We've had a nasty turn of events for the UK's first-ever rocket launch, last night — the rocket was taken up from Newquay Airport in Cornwall by a modified 747 jumbo jet and released, with the aim of carrying 9 satellites into orbit (including one made in Wales!). Everything was going according to plan until somehow the second stage engine apparently failed and the rocket and all the satellites were lost in space... now they're trying to figure out what went wrong. (And I guess, contrary to the traditional saying, in this case it IS rocket science.)

I am so not a fan of Artemis flying manned the second time out let alone around the moon. NASA'S history is littered with disasters that have been caused by them rushing. Apollo 1 and Challenger are case in point.

Well, here's a bit of news today, that is enough for discussion on both this thread & the astronomy thread. I heard that 124 light years away from Earth astronomers have found a planet that appears to support life. Several news items state:

In a potential landmark discovery, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have obtained what they call the strongest signs yet of possible life beyond our solar system, detecting in an alien planet's atmosphere the chemical fingerprints of gases that on Earth are produced only by biological processes.

But surely it is unlikely that we would ever reach it, and would we really want to do so? 124 light-years would be way beyond a normal human lifespan. K2-18 b is 8.6 times as massive as Earth and has a diameter about 2.6 times as large as our planet. What might its gravity be like?

Meanwhile, it is fascinating to wonder what could be on this new exo-planet. At the moment I wish it were as simple as Polly and Digory's rings in the Wood between the Worlds. 

Time to dust off this thread!

At the moment, the Artemis II craft is approaching the first flyby around the Moon in over 50 years (when I was but a starry-eyed lad 😉 ).It's the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972 that humans have gone beyond low-earth orbit.

The flyby itself occurs on Monday.

NASA has two sites where space fans can keep tabs on what's happening:

Live Mission coverage on YouTube (since it is live, there's not always a lot going on, but it also shows daily press briefings and other things in addition to the flight itself). 

Follow Artemis This is an interactive display with a variety of functions, including space craft views and diagrams showing its location in space relative to the Moon and Earth. When I opened it the first time it had a helpful brief tour of some of its features.

I've been geeking out for days. Watched the launch and have been off and on ever since. Been watching since around 1 today. I just missed the wake up call. The tributes to Apollo 8 were so emotional and touching. I can't believe they got Jim Lovell to record a message. I also loved the tribute to the commander's late wife. It also felt like a continuation of the tribute Lovell gave his wife by naming a mountain on the moon after her in addition to the remembering her. 

And of course the photographer in me is totally geeking out in a different way over the camera tech on board. I do actually get why there is only a single mirrorless on board and the DSLRs are 15 years old. DLSRs are basically the same tech they've been using on the ISS and Space Shuttle for decades. The mirrorless needed a shakedown test for how it would handle views further out with the harsh lighting and the launch vibrations. 

NASA employee's Christian faith is showing all over the place and I love it. The news may be editing it out, but the livestream isn't!

I enjoyed the lunar flyby quite a bit. I recognized many of the nearside craters and features they named, and it was fun to hear the enthusiasm in their voices, and see it in the science officer on the ground.

The solar eclipse by the moon was also spectacular and I'm looking forward to seeing better images of it soon.

I've been going through NASA's image gallery of their lunar flyby and this is actually like nothing I've ever seen in my life.  

https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/lunar-flyby/

That gallery is stunning, and almost surreal, thanks, @Glenwit! I have not been able to watch any of Artemis II's journey, but have followed it on the radio news. It will be good to know these astronauts have landed safely in the Pacific Ocean this Friday evening. No doubt their families are counting the hours!

A fun and interesting fact: two years ago, my husband, an electrical engineer, helped design the pilot line winches (bright yellow) for the escape basket, mounted on top of the Artemis II launch structure. Yes, a Canadian company was awarded this bid. But thankfully there was no emergency, so they did not have to use them.

'Though hubby was only one little cog in a huge NASA wheel, it was quite something to be able to have a small part in this. The company he works for has done other projects for NASA, as well. (He has a fascinating and full-of-variety vocation!)

Posted by: @jo

An interesting fact: two years ago, my husband, an electrical engineer, helped design the pilot line winches (bright yellow) for the escape basket, mounted on top of the Artemis II launch structure. But thankfully there was no emergency, so they did not have to use them. 

Wow, that's quite the claim to fame! Hey better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it right??

The Artemis II, having completed its mission to the Dark side of the moon, has just landed, about 20 minutes ago, off the coast of California. On my computer, it is currently 10.54 AM AEST, on 11/4/26. Eldest daughter is still watching it on TV. It came to Earth on a trajectory from south-west, towards the Pacific Ocean so that it passed over northern NSW onwards. I'm sure there will be replays on the news within 24 hours.