Editorial: Artemis moon mission is welcome evidence of inspirational bravery and ingenuity of the human race

It has been fascinating to follow the journey of Artemis II, Nasa’s first manned moon mission in more than 50 years.​

Blasting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida last Wednesday, the 322-foot rocket, with four astronauts on board, has since gone on to captivate a global audience as it carries out its lunar flyby around the moon.

Even King Charles got caught up in the excitement, sending his "heartfelt good wishes" to the crew, while, in a nod to his own environmental leanings, remarking how it is vital “that the moon remains a beacon of peaceful scientific discovery rather than a theatre of exploitation”.

Along the way, the Artemis astronauts have taken breathtaking images of Earth, and collected significant data on what is a 10-day flight around the moon covering a total of 685,000 miles.

Apollo 17 in 1972 was the last time that Nasa sent astronauts to the Moon.

Of course, many readers of the News Letter will remember those Apollo missions - and indeed, will have watched live on television the most famous of them all, Apollo 11, which landed humans on the moon for the first time, in July 1969.

Neil Armstrong (recently cited by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as an example of the Scots-Irish who shaped America), Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins wrote their names into the annals of history with their successful lunar mission.

The current Artemis astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen – might not be so familiar yet, but as our report on page two states, they have created history by reaching 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the previous record of 248,655 miles set by Apollo 13 in April 1970.

With conflict currently raging in the Middle East, Artemis is welcome evidence of the inspirational bravery and ingenuity of the human race.