Culture

The Artemis Astronauts Are Studs

Strength, courage, expertise, wonder: NASA’s moon-mission crew has reset the bar for greatness.

First published in The Atlantic on April 8, 2026.

by Sally Jenkins, The Atlantic
April 30, 2026 | reading time: 8 Min.

The tendrils of Christina Koch’s flyaway hair swirled about in the gravityless cockpit of the Orion spacecraft, seeming to represent all of the untetheredness of the Artemis II mission. As her mane eddied, like its own separate creature, throughout the record 252,756-mile journey to the radio-silent black side of the moon, it brought a sense of irrepressible aliveness to that dead stone up there.

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