Apollo 8’s 1968 mission has been compared to that of Artemis 2. Even though Artemis 2 did not orbit the Moon, whereas Apollo 8 observed the lunar surface during 10 lunar orbits, the mission objectives were very similar. Test the spacecraft, propulsion, life support, navigation, avionics, reentry, splashdown and recovery.
They are similar in other respects.
1968 was a year of intense violence around the globe.
Students protested against the government policies in Spain (challenging Franco’s oppressive rule), France (protest started at the Sorbonne and escalated to a General Strike), the UK (brutal suppression of civil rights marches initiated a three-decade-long period known as “the Troubles”, and the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia to maintain an authoritarian grip. In the midst of a particularly brutal Vietnam War and widespread rebellion against repressive civil liberties, Martin Luther King and Robert F Kennedy were assassinated.
We, humans, are capable of some incredibly wonderful things and yet, as we have demonstrated many times in the history of our civilisation, many unequalled acts of extreme brutality and destruction.
Today, in 2026 we have war with the suffering and evil it brings in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and beyond.
Tomorrow could be the start of something even worse.
Almost three decades separate Apollo 8 and Artemis 2.
Classists note another parallel with today’s events. About 2,500 years ago, according to Herodotus (1.53), the Oracle at Delphi told King Croesus of Lydia that if he marched against the Persians, he would destroy a great empire.
Our record of stewardship of the Moon with only half a dozen visits is not is not a sustainable one. If anything marks us as a civilisation, they are the international, collective institutions we have constructed over milenia; in education, law, governance, spirituality, arts and music. If and when we do leave for other planets we s should take the traditions and heritage of our previous generations for all mankind.
In a 1963 interview, the philosopher C S Lewis feared that “humanity would spread sinful, colonialist behaviours to other planets, rather than constructive or virtuous influence“.
Potentially, as the only intelligent species in the Galaxy, we should be capable of more than what appears the Earth has to offer today. Is this the pinnacle of where intelligent life can go? Until we can live in peace with each other, surely we do not have the right to venture out to others?
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