This week when they swung around the Moon the crew of the Artemis II traveled farther from Earth than any human beings ever. Their distance of 252,760 miles away surpassed the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. More importantly their accomplishment served as a reminder of what humanity can do when it puts its mind to it, works together, and embraces science. But what were the astronauts thinking about as they made their historic trip through space? A movie about a trip through space. The Artemis II crew watched Project Hail Mary during quarantine ahead of their launch, and we know it stuck with them because they quoted Rocky during a beautiful moment on their journey.
Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, the first non-American to travel to the Moon, gave his fellow London, Ontario native Ryan Gosling a big thumbs up for Project Hail Mary. A floating Hansen talked about how the crew got a “real treat” when they received screeners of the blockbuster sci-fi film. The astronauts all got to watch it with their families before leaving. They were, like everyone else, big fans.
“I would just say to Ryan, art imitates science and vice versa, it seems. He did a great job in that movie. It’s wonderful to see people really leaning into those roles,” said Hansen. “I thought it was just such an inspirational example. And somebody who goes out there and just gets what was done to save humanity. It’s a pretty extraordinary example that we can all follow. We all thought that movie was really uplifting and inspiring.”
Gosling had also sent the crew a message wishing them luck on their inspiring journey.
We know Gosling’s film landed with the real space explorers because they quoted it during a great moment. While telling NASA how they could see Earth out of one window and the Moon out of another, one of the crew members dropped Rocky’s memorable quote. “Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!”
No human or Eridian could have said it better.