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NASA’s Artemis II launch leaves Americans in awe: ‘We’re going to the frickin’ moon!’
NASA’s Artemis II launch leaves Americans in awe: ‘We’re going to the frickin’ moon!’

NASA’s Artemis II — the first crewed lunar spaceflight in more than half a century — lifted off on Wednesday, and Americans of all ages watching the launch from Earth were in awe.

Crowds gathered along beaches near Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to catch a glimpse of history.

One boy with a GoPro camera strapped to his NASA cap was asked by a CNN reporter why he wanted to be there.

“We’re going back to the frickin’ moon, that’s why!” he exclaimed in a reply that was widely shared online.

The clip caught the attention of NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who wrote on X: “Oh this kid is definitely getting a bag of NASA gear.”

Other children were equally excited.

“I’m so obsessed with space,” Jack, an aspiring astronaut from Atlanta who came dressed in a spacesuit costume, told a CBS News reporter moments before Wednesday’s launch. “So it’ll be totally exciting.”

Parents across the country recorded themselves and their kids reacting to the launch.

A woman who was watching the launch from a golf course in Tampa, posted a video to TikTok showing her grandmother, father and young children as the Artemis II rocket appeared over the horizon.

“Special moment that 4 generations of my family got to enjoy,” she wrote in the caption.

Even reporters covering the launch were left awestruck.

Rebecca Morelle, a science editor for the BBC who watched the launch from Florida, was moved to tears.

“Oh my goodness, that is spectacular!” Morelle said. “It's not just what you see and hear as the rocket lifts off, you can actually feel the force of it through your body.”

The last crewed moon mission, Apollo 17, was in 1972.

“There are a lot of people who don’t remember Apollo. There are generations who weren’t alive when Apollo launched,” NASA’s science mission chief Nicky Fox said at a pre-launch press conference. "This is their Apollo.”

Children react to a broadcast of the launch during an event organized by the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, April 1.
Children react to a broadcast of the launch during an event organized by the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, April 1.
(Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)
People view the Artemis liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on April 1.
People view the Artemis liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on April 1.
(Miguel J Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images)
People gather to watch the Artemis II launch in Titusville, Fla., on April 1.
People gather to watch the Artemis II launch in Titusville, Fla., on April 1.
(Marco Bello/Reuters)

The Artemis II astronauts — NASA commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian space agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — won’t be landing on the moon. Instead, they will be testing life support systems on a 10-day journey around the moon and back for future crewed missions to the moon’s surface.

Actor Tom Hanks, who starred in Apollo 13, celebrated the Artemis II launch in an Instagram post, thanking each astronaut by name.

“Did you know that no humans have traveled beyond the gravitational pull of the Earth since December 1972?” Hanks wrote. “That changes today.”

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