The Artemis II around-the-moon shot has evoked nostalgic moments for me. In 1972, the last time anyone, man or woman, went to the moon, I was a teenager. Since my father had worked on all the moon shots, they loomed large in our lives.

But the whole world watched the original moon landing in 1969. We all thrilled to the fuzzy black-and-white image of Neil Armstong setting foot on our nearest neighbor, in the dark and dust, as he proclaimed the step was meant for all mankind. I have compared notes with a Russian friend who’s my age, and we both remember it as a highlight and both still treasure the moon landing keepsakes we collected. (The difference was that I could watch it take off from my front yard in Florida.) The mission grew out of a race between warring nations, but once we got there, we realized the achievement was bigger than the conflict between our two countries.

But just as importantly, the NASA Apollo missions gave us a living color photo of our planet from space – the “blue marble” hanging in a vast black void. It sparked new movements and new comprehension that we all share this little planet; our only planet.

Back then, the US was at war, the protests were mounting and by 1972, Nixon was starting to understand he was in a battle that could not be won, in which American soldiers were dying in a far-off country for objectives that were increasingly outdated and unsustainable.........

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