'Moon joy,' a crater named 'Carroll' and space selfies: The moments from the Artemis II mission that are pulling at our heartstrings

Space travel has an unsurprisingly profound impact on the rare group of people who are lucky enough to experience it. Since the days of NASA’s earliest missions, psychologists have studied what happens to the minds of people who have left the Earth and had the opportunity to view it from the vacuum of space.

The four members of the Artemis II crew will undoubtedly be changed forever after voyaging farther from their home planet than anyone in history, but the emotional effects aren’t reserved for the people inside the Orion spacecraft.

Many of us back on Earth have also been deeply moved by the Artemis mission as well. These are some of the moments that have resonated the most with those of us who have been watching humanity’s return to the moon.

“Who could’ve guessed how badly we needed to send that little group of humans to everybody’s favorite little space rock,” one commenter wrote on TikTok.

Naming a moon crater after an astronaut’s late wife

Monday was the day that the entire mission was designed for. The astronauts completed their flyby of the far side of the moon, observing the lunar surface with an unprecedented level of detail and scope. But for all the scientific milestones that were accomplished, the moment that stood out the most was a deeply human one.

The Artemis crew had the opportunity to give names to craters on the moon’s surface. They chose to name one of them Carroll as a tribute to mission commander Reid Wiseman’s wife, who died of cancer in 2020.

“It’s a bright spot on the moon … and we would like to call it Carroll,” mission specialist Jeremy Hansen told mission control as he fought back tears.

Seeing this emotional tribute brought countless observers to tears.

“So much LOVE and JOY coming from this mission. I needed this, we all needed this,” a commenter wrote on Instagram.

“Being human is really all we have, huh?” one TikToker said in a video that has been liked more than 800,000 times.

A commenter on that clip was especially moved by the thought of what the tribute would mean for the Wiseman’s two daughters: “so now Katie & Ellie can look up at the moon and talk to their mom?? I am unwell,” they wrote.

“I was like why is this girl crying over the moon?! And now I’m crying over the moon,” another wrote.

Commander Wiseman’s decade-old dream

Social media users have gone back to a post written by Wiseman nearly 10 years ago, in which he lamented that he could only visit the moon in his dreams.

“Dreamt I was in lunar orbit last night. Been in that post-vivid-dream-that-wasn't-real funk all morning,” he wrote on X back in December 2016.

The comments on that post are now full of messages from the past few days congratulating him on turning that dream into a reality and drawing inspiration from his successful pursuit of something so extraordinary.

“Wake up Reid, it’s not a dream anymore,” one person wrote. “Dreams come true after all,” wrote another.

Christina Koch’s moon selfie

Mission specialist Christina Koch, who made history as the first woman to leave Earth’s orbit during this mission, shared a photo of herself with the Earth glowing behind her and the caption “First braids to leave Earth orbit. (unconfirmed).”

Commenters were moved by the stunning photograph and the breakthrough that it represented.

“An amazing and inspiring image. Good job human beings!” one person on Facebook wrote.

“The language of hair that binds all women together ❤️❤️ congrats,” wrote a commenter on Instagram.

Moon joy

The astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft have done an admirable job of articulating how they have felt throughout the mission, at times sharing lengthy, poetic messages with mission control.

As moving as their statements are, a much simpler phrase from mission control may become the words by which the mission is remembered. “Moon joy” is an all-encompassing term that has been used repeatedly to sum up the emotions that the Artemis II crew, and the team guiding them from back on Earth, are experiencing.

The succinctness and purity of the term have resonated with fans of space travel.

“I was grinning ear to ear hearing their excitement. This was a highlight of the whole event so far. … This is why space will always inspire us,” one person wrote on X.

“The most perfectly understated response to astronauts losing their minds over seeing the Moon up close for the first time,” wrote another.

Liftoff itself

Rocket launches are awesome. The noise, the bright flames, the wonder of watching an object that’s so massive lift from the Earth’s surface. Thanks to the emergence of the private space industry, launches aren’t all that rare anymore. But there was still something special about the start of the Artemis mission that resonated.

“This moment was when I started crying for the first time during the launch … there were others,” one Facebook commenter wrote alongside a video NASA posted of the launch.

When asked by a newscaster why he was excited to be there, a young boy who was at the launch in person may have put it best: “We’re going back to the frickin’ moon, that’s why!” he said.

Loss of signal

Perhaps the most nerve-racking moment of the Artemis mission so far was the 40-minute window when the spacecraft lost all contact with Earth as it traveled around the far side of the moon. Though a “loss of signal” period is a normal part of lunar travel, it still provided some emotionally charged moments when the astronauts said goodbye to the rest of humankind and when they regained contact with home on the other side.

“As we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still going to feel your love from Earth,” pilot Victor Glover said shortly before the signal died.

One commenter described the message as “the first day in a long while these last few years that’s given me hope for humanity.”

Koch shared her own moving sentiment when the signal was restored, saying that no matter how far humankind chooses to travel, “we will always choose Earth.”

“Floating around in that capsule dropping pure poetry like its nothing,” a commenter on X wrote: “artemis ii you got me again.”