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Raymond J. de Souza: The Artemis mission is humbling for humanity

It took its crew farther than any earthling has ever been from this lonely, lovely, lively planet

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The lunar orbit of Artemis II reminded us of the “Earthrise” photograph from the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968. Man had never seen the Earth before as a whole, a beautiful blue marble against the ethereal vast blackness of space. Man had forever looked up at the moon. He had never before looked down upon the Earth.

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While Apollo 8 was followed some seven months later by the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969, the photo likely had a greater impact than the actual moon walk. There was now an image to accompany the ingrained intuition that the world was a singular, shared entity; that despite perennial rivalries between peoples and tribes and nations, we share common passage upon this small, lonely cosmic vessel.

Raymond J. de Souza: The Artemis mission is humbling for humanity Back to video

For travellers in the 1980s and ’90s, the trusty “Lonely Planet” series was required reading for pre-internet planning. There was not a tourist site in the world in which someone was not fishing the “Lonely Planet” guide out of a backpack. The “Lonely Planet” was founded in 1973. Would the title have resonated so........

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