Nation #48 Has Joined NASA's Moon Exploration Initiative...

NASA

NASA Welcomes Denmark as Newest Artemis Accords Signatory (News Release)

Following a signing ceremony on Wednesday in Denmark’s capital city, Copenhagen, NASA embraced Denmark as the 48th nation to commit to the safe and responsible exploration of space that benefits humanity.

“We welcome Denmark’s signing of the Artemis Accords today,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Denmark, as a founding member of the European Space Agency (ESA), has contributed to space exploration for decades, including collaborating with NASA on Mars exploration. Denmark’s signing of the Artemis Accords will further international cooperation and the peaceful exploration of space.”

Christina Egelund, minister of higher education and science, signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of Denmark. Alan Leventhal, U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark also participated in the ceremony, and Nelson contributed recorded remarks.

“With the Artemis program, the United States is leading the way back to the Moon, and Denmark wants to strengthen the strategic partnership with the United States and other partners for the benefit of both science and industry,” said Egelund. “The signing of the Accords is in line with the Danish government’s upcoming strategy for space research and innovation. As part of the strategy, Denmark seeks to strengthen ties with our allies such as the United States. Space holds great potential, and we want – in cooperation with other countries – to advance scientific breakthroughs and influence the development and use of the space sector in the future.”

In 2020, the United States, led by NASA and the U.S. Department of State, and seven other initial signatory nations established the Artemis Accords, identifying a set of principles promoting the beneficial use of space for humanity. The Artemis Accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements including the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.

The commitments to the Artemis Accords and efforts by the signatories to advance implementation of these principles support the safe and sustainable exploration of space.

Source: NASA.Gov

The Latest Update on the First Crewed Lunar Flight Since 1972...

Lockheed Martin / David Wellendorf

Artemis II Orion Spacecraft Undergoes Testing (News Release)

Teams lifted NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II test flight out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell and moved it to the altitude chamber to complete further testing on November 6 inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Engineers returned the spacecraft to the altitude chamber, which simulates deep space vacuum conditions, to complete the remaining test requirements and provide additional data to augment data gained during testing earlier this summer.

The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under the Artemis campaign, sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back.

Source: NASA.Gov

A Random Rant About a Pop Star...

So anyways, I stumbled upon the tweet below where American music artist Olivia Rodrigo considered it a turn-off if men she met on a first date said that they wanted to go to space. She thinks that these guys are "a little too full" of themselves for having this ambition.

...

Um, okay. Overlooking the irony that a celebrity is accusing other folks of being too full of themselves, what kind of ridiculousness is it that a guy who wants to be an astronaut would be considered too ambitious for her?

Hypothetically speaking, if Rodrigo met Neil Armstrong on a first date—if he was obviously still alive and around her age today—she wouldn't continue going out with him because he flew to the Moon on Apollo 11, or was about to courtesy of an Artemis mission?

And let's not overlook the fact that Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and a lot of today's NASA astronauts are married with children... So traveling beyond Earth's atmosphere clearly didn't stop these explorers from having normal, earthly lives as well.

Of course, Rodrigo's response may be to billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson traveling to space via their respective companies, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. And in Elon Musk's case, he wants to spend his inherited fortune and government subsidies to build a rocket—SpaceX's Starship vehicle—that would send people to Mars.

Bezos and Musk don't help the case against Rodrigo; considering that Bezos created a multibillion-dollar online retail company that destroyed countless numbers of mom-and-pop stores and major businesses like Sears, Borders and Toys 'R' Us, while Musk spent $44 billion on buying Twitter so that he could turn it into a right-wing propaganda tool used in an attempt to get Donald Trump re-elected tomorrow.

So yea, it disappoints me greatly that Olivia Rodrigo would look down on guys who are passionate about space exploration...but uberwealthy white folks like Bezos and Musk are giving her a reason to adopt such an attitude towards men wanting to venture to the Kármán line and beyond. Very unfortunate.

Olivia Rodrigo reveals that a guy wanting to go to space is a red flag for her:

“This is a very oddly specific question that I ask guys on first dates. I always ask them if they think that they would want to go to space. And if they say yes, I don’t date them. I just think if… pic.twitter.com/JdVhYBNMKz

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 2, 2024