Dear Reader, something amazing happened last Friday evening. My husband turned on the television set in the hotel room we were in for the night. To my best recollection, he’s never done so – ever. We just don’t watch tv in hotels. But the amazing thing is, if Rick hadn’t turned on the tube, I would have. What the heck was going on?

I’m guessing that you already know the reason. That Friday night the Artemis II mission ended, and the Orion spacecraft achieved splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. We had been closely following the astronauts on their historic travels, and were praying for a safe return to Earth. Their journey was amazing, and thinking about it still makes me feel all warm inside. We didn’t want to miss it!

The world got to know the four astronauts pretty well in the past few weeks. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen.

Such disciplined, intelligent, accomplished individuals. I found them all to be quite amazing. The bond they formed will be with them their entire lives. Plus, they joined a very select group of spacegoers. Talk about cool. Those guys will be the center of attention at every gettogether for the rest of their lives. Think about it. You couldn’t brag on your hole-in-one on the golf course around one of them, or your fancy new car. An astronaut will always have the ultimate one-up on the rest of us mere mortals.

“Yep, I flew to the moon and back in a spacecraft.” Wow, just wow!

I loved all the new images the astronauts took and shared with those of us back on Earth. The photos of the back of the moon and the solar eclipse were awe-inspiring. And of course, seeing the Earth from space just never gets old.

Such a beautiful planet we live on; we are so exceedingly fortunate. We need to take better care of Mother Earth, our (one and only) home, instead of polluting her as we do. And let’s not forget that we’ve left plenty of debris out in space too. Just like humans to litter wherever we go. We are capable of doing better!

Anyway, that Friday we’d had a very busy day, starting at 5am, with hours of windshield time and many miles walked too. We’d had a nice dinner and were watching the TV from the cozy hotel bed afterward. All that usually adds up to me dozing off. But I so wanted to make sure the astronauts were safe, that I forced myself to stay awake much longer than usual. Yep, doing my part for the space program! But seriously, finding out they were all okay was so wonderful. Made sleep that much better.

Thank you Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy. And NASA. You filled our lives with awe and excitement. Space… the Final Frontier.