FROM THE EDITOR: 'Yay, Human Race'
Hope. Trust. Expertise. Artemus II inspires America's young -- and not a moment too late.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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It wasn’t on television in 1967. It didn’t need to be.
Three astronauts — Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee — were burned alive in their capsule atop Apollo 1 when a short caused the 100% oxygen cabin to ignite.
I remember my mom crying, though at four I didn’t make the connection.
I do remember a nation of people picking up the pieces and moving forward because they embraced the future, not the past.
A year-and-a-half later, I watched Apollo 11 slowly lift off Launch Pad 39-A. Then, on my seventh birthday, I watched on the console TV at my grandfather’s house as Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
Shortly after, I also watched Apollo 11 splashdown.
Those experiences inspired me in ways that are hard to put into words. It didn’t motivate me to be a scientist — I tried, but me and math didn’t get along. More my fault than math’s.
What Apollo gave me was a grounded belief that humans can do amazing things — when we are willing to take the risks and pay the price. In whatever field we choose.
We had lost that belief — until Friday night.
Covering Artemus II’s return to earth, a commentator at ABC news asked a guest who also remembered Apollo what the Artemis II splashing down off the San Diego coast mean to him. His three-word answer?
“Yay, human race!”
In my 63 years, I don’t remember a time when the country has been as cynical, or as willfully ignorant, as it is today.
We deny basic science. We devalue education. We see those who disagree with us not as intellectual colleagues but the personification of evil. Yes, I’m talking about Donald Trump and MAGA and too many of their supporters. But I’m also talking about progressives whose hatred for conservatives runs as deep as MAGA’s and Trump’s for them. And the populists who are long on anger but short on any understanding of the work it takes to strengthen a nation.
Simply put, we no longer trust one another.
Fortunately, not all fell victim. There are those who committed their lives to something more — to returning humans to the moon and pushing them to travel further.
Thank god for NASA, and those people who chose hard things over backbiting political nonsense.
Tonight, they showed millions of young people what greatness looks like as they watched live and on television and on streaming platforms as Artemus II returned to earth following a relatively glitch-free mission. (Toilets and some radio troubles for the divers recovering the astronauts notwithstanding.)
Tonight, the seeds of trust were again sown for American youth.
An astronaut on ABC’s coverage of the event sensed that. Talking about how it’s the astronauts who get the credit, she reminded everyone that there’s a “glacier of experts below us,” “experts in their many fields” who never get the credit but whom “we trust implicitly .… they earn it everyday.”
Hope. Trust. Expertise.
They’re connected. They’re the three legs of the stool that made America a world power. They’re what will return us to greatness. And tonight America’s children saw that. They also were told the price — intellectually challenging work, bravery, and a commitment to goals bigger than one’s self.
As during the Apollo era, the doubters will no doubt arise — “We have problems at home, why spend money on space?” Those were the complaints in the late-60s'; we’ve heard those complaints in 2026.
And the conspiracy nonsense will emerge, just like in the 1960s — the deluded still believe that the Apollo 11 moonwalk was a hoax, it’s a matter of probably a few hours before some conspiracist leans on “common sense” to cast doubt on Artemis II.
Too many from my generation — the generation that witnessed Apollo — forgot what humans committed to science, to hard work, and big goals can accomplish.
But Friday night, a new generation of Americans was again given the hope, the beauty, that striving for greatness can achieve.
Some will certainly fall away. But I have great confidence in youth. I believe that they will learn the lessons of hope better than my own did. The lessons of trust. And the lessons of leaning on science and expertise.
We have given the young ample proof of what distrust and intellectual laziness produces.
It’s time to rekindle our commitment to nurturing the good that comes from striving for greatness for everyone.
Things won’t always go well. It’s space travel, after all. It will never be simple or free from danger. Accidents will occur (Apollo 13), parts or systems will fail (Space Shuttle Challenger), and lives will be lost (Space Shuttle Columbia to name but one).
That’s the price of hope. Of trust. And of pursuing intellectually challenging goals.
It’s a price worth paying.
We know too well what happens when we forgo it.
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Great editorial Marty! My step-daughter is off to Embry Riddle to study space flight management this fall, after having a great experience at Space Camp a couple of years ago. While we baby boomers have certainly been a disappointment, I am optimistic that the generations following us will chart a different path.