The further we go, the closer we are.

“That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Neil Armstrong shared this iconic sentiment the moment he stepped onto the lunar surface in July of 1969. Three years later, the astronauts of Apollo 17 would become the last to do a lunar fly-by for more than 50 years.

Until now.

Today, it is easy to forget how much unification the “Space Race” brought Americans in the 1960’s. The decade began with President John F. Kennedy proclaiming we would reach the moon by the end of the ‘60s, and at its height, NASA commanded more than 4% of the entire national budget in its quest to beat the Russians. By comparison, now the space program makes up less than 0.5% of the overall US budget in total. During his presidency, Barack Obama privatized the space program, retiring the shuttle, recognizing the importance of a public/private cooperation to innovate faster, leading to some of the more recent achievements of companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin (which are contracted to support landing Artemis III and IV astronauts on the moon).

For as much as we focus on the breakneck pace of innovation we’re experiencing here on Earth, largely driven by artificial intelligence, it is easy to forget the almost unthinkable intelligence that has led to humanity’s most spectacular achievements.

The computing power in the Space Shuttle that took those astronauts to the moon was the same as exists in a modern smart watch. The calculations to perfectly calibrate a journey of hundreds of thousands of miles had to be so precise as even an infinitesimal mistake would prove catastrophic.

The further we go, the closer we are.

I have been fascinated by our space program since I walked into an astronomy class in 2009. I was not a science major. I went to a “business” school. That is, even as an undergraduate almost 90% of the students majored in finance or accounting. And yet, one of the most transformative experiences I had during my college years happened within the space program.

I signed up for an elective on astronomy, taught by a professor who was the real deal. He had a moon-shaped earring, had deeply creative lesson plans, and had the kind of palpable passion that is entirely contagious. George Fishman introduced me to outer space, and also to an organization at the time called NASA Means Business, which was a college competition hosted by NASA to “rebrand the space program,” focusing on the “Constellation Program” designed to send human beings to Mars.

A long story short, my group got really excited about the potential. The more we learned about the people and processes behind space exploration, the more we were in complete awe of them. There is a reason why a generation of children said “astronaut” when asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. You can also attribute many modern consumer technologies to advancements made by NASA research (for the next time someone says “why should we spend money on space when we have problems here at home!”).

We placed first in the national competition, beating out MIT thank you very much, and had the chance to visit Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, and to present our plan to the head of Space Operations in Washington, D.C.

Shockingly, the PSA that we created is still online. Ignore the production value.

At the crux of our pitch, were two ideas:

1. Astronauts are heroes. We may idolize athletes, or increasingly, “influencers.” But qualifying for space travel is no easy feat. You have to be in perfect health (not just in the ordinary way, but “I could complete 5 Iron Man races” health). Most also have military experience as pilots or highly technical operators. And that’s not to mention the 3-5 doctorate degrees they each possess (perhaps I’m exaggerating a tad, but not by much). We’ll come back to this in a moment.

2. We are at our best when we are all pushing toward an impossible goal, together. President Kennedy put a stake in the ground challenging us to get to the moon by the end of the decade. And we did. Everyone knew the goal. It was shared, it was focused. Across any team or organization, the lesson is clear: everyone needs a mission statement.

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Why does space fascinate us so much? There is, of course, the obvious - traveling further than ever before, exploring our vast universe, is inherently exciting. But deep space also offers the ultimate perspective.

When we look at an image of the Earth taken from 225,000 miles away, it’s impossible to see borders, conflicts, famine, stress from work or relationships. The further away we go from Earth, the more we realize how close and connected we are back here at home. From space, it is not just our humble planet that looks small, so too are many of our perceived problems.

Humanity at the center of it all.

This week, four astronauts traveled for nearly five days to the far side of the Moon, more than 225,000 miles from Earth, using a complex slingshot to utilize gravity as a return mechanism, briefly losing contact with Earth as they traversed a distance never before experienced by mankind. It is, in a way, the most technologically advanced, computer-driven, scientific achievement in history.

And yet, the prevailing messages being transmitted back home are innately human. Just before losing signal with Earth for roughly 40 minutes, astronaut Victor Glover shared a powerful message with all of us, saying in part, “In all of this emptiness — this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist (in) together.” You can watch the full clip here.

And in another tearful moment, the Artemis II team identifies two previously-unnamed craters on the lunar surface. Canadian Jeremy Hansen messages Houston control requesting to name one of the craters “Integrity” after their Orion vessel. He then turns attention to the second crater, noting it is visible from Earth as it sits on the boundary of the dark side as a bright spot, and requesting to name it “Carroll” after the late wife of his colleague Reid Wiseman. Carroll passed away in 2020 leaving Reid to raise their two daughters. In that moment, the four astronauts embrace.

What is the takeaway?

In a journey dictated by impeccable precision and bleeding-edge technology that took us further than we’ve ever been, the prevailing story is powerfully human.

Today, the astronauts of Artemis will splash down off the coast of San Diego. This moment will not just mark the end of an historic mission, but perhaps one our divided nation (and people from around the world) can celebrate together.

Why have I always loved space? Because it gives us hope. It points us toward the impossible. And when people are united in the face of the impossible, we usually come out on top.

Image courtesy of NASA.