In August of 1960 my family moved to Chadron, and I remember how excited I was when my mother and I sat outside our new home and watched Echo 1 move across the sky above us. Echo 1 was a mylar balloon whose purpose was to bounce radio signals back to earth in the first attempt to create a communications satellite. It not only worked, but because it was a shiny balloon 30 yards in diameter, it reflected a lot of light and was easily visible from our backyard.

The next year I was glued to the television as Alan Shepard became the first American in space. Another year later and I was again glued to the television as John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. I tried to watch all the launches of the Mercury and Gemini programs and then along came the Apollo program, with me once again glued to the television in 1969, as Neal Armstrong said those immortal words, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!”

Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon with 11 more men following him until Gene Cernan was the last in 1972. At that time NASA pivoted to developing reusable launch vehicles.

It took 13 years before the Space Shuttle Columbia was launched. Once again I watched both the launch and the landing, but then apathy set in as 25 more Space Shuttle launches went by, and I didn’t watch most of them. A second shuttle, Challenger, was also flying and on its 10th mission it was to take a teacher into space. That was in 1986, and I applied to be that “teacher in space”. Thank God, I was not chosen because the Challenger exploded 73 seconds into the flight. I didn’t watch the launch. I was teaching a class.

The apathy got even worse because another 88 missions were launched and it was becoming “ho hum”, that is until in 2003 when the shuttle Columbia, in its 28th mission, was destroyed upon reentry. The program continued until 2011 with the 110th mission.

At that time the shuttle program was brought to an end. With the exception of the Challenger and Columbia disasters, the shuttle program was very, very successful, accomplishing amazing things.

The success of the International Space Station didn’t even generate a lot of “buzz” but the launching of flights called Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin by Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos brought back the “buzz”, partly because celebrities like Katy Perry were on the 10-minute flights. Other than to take celebrities into space, the flights accomplished very little… with the exception of the method of their landings.

Now we have the Artemis program. Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and given that one of the major objectives of the program was to land the first woman on the moon, NASA chose the name Artemis.

I just hope that the young people of today aren’t as apathetic about spaceflight as I became after the Challenger disaster. With Star Wars and Star Trek and the seemingly easy ability to go into space, Artemis II flying around the moon might not sound exciting. One young man asked me, “Didn’t we do that a long time ago?” Yes we did, though it doesn’t seem that long ago.

I’m re-excited because NASA has now pivoted back to going to the moon. Artemis IV will be a mission that will not only establish a space station orbiting the moon, but also the landing of two people on the moon. Given the original priority of the Artemis program, at least one of those two will be a woman.

Following that, in eight to 10 years, will be a crewed mission to Mars. I just hope that a 9-year-old watched the flight of Artemis II with as much excitement as I had watching Echo I streak across the sky back in 1960.