When Christina Koch was hurtling towards the moon, she didn’t realize there would be crowds of rocket enthusiasts and kids in spacesuits , huddled together, cheering her on back down on Earth. At least not immediately.
Koch, one of the four astronauts who circumvented the moon aboard Artemis II, said it didn’t register that so many people were watching until her husband told her on a “family conference” during the mission.
“He was like, ‘You need to know something. This mission is having an incredible impact down here. It’s moving people across lines. Everyone is paying attention.’ We didn’t know the public was watching us,” Koch said to a packed theatre at the National Arts Centre on May 13.
“We thought our friends in mission control were watching us. So, we just thought we were on a screen for our best friends.”
But on the evening of April 1, more than their best friends were watching. About 300 people gathered around the NAC’s Kipnes Lantern — a massive LED screen — to watch its first-ever live-streamed event.
Kondwani Mwase, the executive director of audience engagement at the NAC, was among them.
“There were people on the other side of the street, and because of how big the lantern is, people can see from a lot of different vantage points. We were able to experience the takeoff in a way that’s emblematic of what we do at the NAC — people coming together to experience something in unison,” Mwase said of the April 1 live-stream. Mwase said the emotion was overwhelming.
“People congregating, yelling, screaming, and cheering at the same time. Watching people on the street react, the smiles, and the pride on their faces was indescribable,” Mwase said.
When the Canadian Space Agency first reached out late last year to ask whether the NAC could stream the launch of Artemis II, David Leclerc, who operates the lantern, was immediately excited, but not confident.
Leclerc said there was uncertainty around when and whether the launch would happen, as it had been delayed a number of times.
“We knew we could promote the launch, and the Canadian angle of having Jeremy Hansen on the mission. But there was uncertainty because of the type of launch, with its different attempts,” said Leclerc.
By the time the rocket launched on April 1 and after months of preparation, Leclerc was able to operate the lantern remotely from home, just as a NASA control room in Houston monitored the actual launch.
Though he didn’t witness the lantern’s scene firsthand, Leclerc knew it was a success. “I had colleagues at the lantern, sending me photos and telling me it was perfect,” he said. “Everything aligned. Afterwards, I looked back on these photos, and I could see people walking by and stopping. I was just fascinated.”
Many of the kids in spacesuits and rocket enthusiasts who witnessed the launch on the lantern returned to the NAC on May 13 to hear the astronauts speak.
Leah Bevington said there was a sense of togetherness and community that evening on April 1.
“It was really emotional,” Bevington said. “My dad was obsessed with space. The year that he died was the year that Chris Hadfield went up to space, and my dad’s name is Chris. He would have been utterly obsessed.”
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