Earlier tonight, at 6:44 PM Eastern time to be precise, we saw this on NASA TV:
It was followed, 42 minutes later, by this image:
Yes, that tiny thing in the depth of space is Earth. Every human being currently alive, and the remains of every human being who ever lived, are there, except for the four people on board Artemis 4, the spacecraft that took these images as part of its live video feed as it circumnavigated the Moon. (And no, don’t worry, the Moon is still there in the second picture, it’s just that from their perspective it’s mostly dark. Soon thereafter, they actually experienced a solar eclipse in space, as the Sun vanished behind the Moon for about an hour or so.)
Meanwhile, a friend of mine sent me a picture of something that hangs on his wall:
Yes, it means exactly what it implies: he was a member of the recovery force that recovered the last human expedition to the Moon, after their successful return and oceanic splashdown, back in 1972.
I was not yet 10 back then. Now? I already celebrated my 63rd birthday.
Past and present, both now part of one of those rare arcs of history that are worth remembering for all the right reasons.
As the Artemis II crewmembers remarked after breaking the distance record from the Earth: they hope their new record will not remain unbroken for long.
I hope so, too. Very, very much.