Launch commentator: And liftoff of Artemis One!
We rise together, back to the Moon and beyond!
Noah Petro: I’m not used to talking about trees.
I like rocks, which is easier.
Seeds represent the most optimistic of our species.
Given our reliance on wood, from raw material for a home,
to a baseball bat, and now a spacecraft,
planting a seedling is an investment in our future.
The tree may not bring you fruit, but it will bring
future generations fruit.
In 1962, President Kennedy said these words:
“We meet in an hour of change and challenge,
in a decade of hope and fear,
and an age of both knowledge and ignorance.
The greater of our knowledge increases,
the greater of our ignorance unfolds.”
Artemis I continued in the grand tradition of what Artemis II
astronaut Victor Glover suggested during his visit
to Goddard as vessels of humanity
that we take our culture with us into the cosmos.
That we should choose to take seeds
and plant them for future generations
to enjoy, to remind us earthbound explorers
that despite the problems we face here,
we remain connected to our future in space.
I'm hopeful that our -
all of our shared work on Artemis missions
will bring similar fruit to future generations.