#apollo 13: the launch

[someawesomeamvs]

Warning: Potential spoilers

Title: The Launch

Editor: JCD

Song: Apollo 13: The Launch

Artist: James Horner

Anime: Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (film)

Other Media: Gagarin: First in Space (film), The First Spaceflight Almost Ended in Failure (film)

Category: Drama

[rabbitcruiser]

Apollo 13 was launched on April 11, 1970.

[lonestarflight]

APOLLO 13 - LAUNCH - KSC

"The Apollo 13 (CSM-109/LM-7/SA-508) space vehicle is launched from Pad A Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), at 2:13 p.m. (EST), April 11, 1970. The crew of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) third lunar landing mission are astronauts James A. Lovell Jr., commander; John L. Swigert Jr., command module pilot; and Fred W. Haise Jr., lunar module pilot."

Date: April 11, 1970

NASA ID: S70-34852, S70-38747, S70-34853, S70-34855, S70-34854, 0101247

[gay-jesus-probably]

This is from the Apollo 8 mission, so they were just the first people to go to the moon, not land. But this breaks down how the crew of the Apollo 8 got their infamous earthrise photographs, matching the movements of their ship and what they were seeing out windows to the pictures taken, all with the audio logs from the mission over top.

The earthrise moment begins at 3:30 in the video, and it's the most delightful thing I've ever heard, these three very serious military pilots immediately turn into excited kids getting the best Christmas present ever (which it actually was, both for them and the entire world; they caught the earthrise photo on December 24th).

And yeah, the Lovell on Apollo 8 was that Jim Lovell, the poor bastard that would then go on to command Apollo 13, giving him the unfortunate honour of being the only person to go to the moon twice without landing. So I like the earthrise audio, just because it's nice to hear Lovell actually enjoying a trip to the moon.

[jeandejard3n]

First Man: Neil Armstrong

[nasa]

Moonbound: One Year Since Artemis I

On this day last year, the Artemis I rocket and spacecraft lit up the sky and embarked on the revolutionary mission to the Moon and back. The first integrated flight test of the rocket and spacecraft continued for 25.5 days, validating NASA’s deep exploration systems and setting the stage for humanity’s return to the lunar surface.

On Nov. 16, 2022, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket met or exceeded all expectations during its debut launch on Artemis I. The twin solid rocket booster motors responsible for producing more than 7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff reached their performance target, helping SLS and the Orion spacecraft reach a speed of about 4,000 mph in just over two minutes before the boosters separated.

Quite a few payloads caught a ride aboard the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis I mission: In addition to a number of small scientific satellites called CubeSats, a manikin named Commander Moonikin Campos sat in the commander’s seat. A Snoopy doll served as a zero-gravity indicator — something that floats inside the spacecraft to demonstrate microgravity. 

During the mission, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles from our home planet, more than 1,000 times farther than where the International Space Station orbits Earth. This surpassed the record for distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans, previously set during Apollo 13.

The Orion spacecraft arrived back home to planet Earth on Dec. 11, 2022. During re-entry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the Sun at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Within about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph to about 20 mph for its parachute-assisted splashdown. 

Recovery teams successfully retrieved the spacecraft and delivered it back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for de-servicing operations, which included removing the payloads (like Snoopy and Commander Moonikin Campos) and analyzing the heat shield.  

With the Artemis I mission under our belt, we look ahead to Artemis II — our first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years. Four astronauts will fly around the Moon inside Orion, practicing piloting the spacecraft and validating the spacecraft’s life support systems. The Artemis II crew includes: NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen. 

As we look ahead to Artemis II, we build upon the incredible success of the Artemis I mission and recognize the hard work and achievements of the entire Artemis team. Go Artemis!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[lolxdswag123]

Sleepless in Cabin 3

Percy Jackson x reader

Warnings: Blood of Olympus spoilers, mentions of insomnia, flashbacks, a makeout session, I think that’s it.

Authors note: This is my first time writing so let me know how I did :)

Summary: reader is having flashbacks to the battle against Gaia and hasn’t been sleeping. Goes to best friend Percy’s cabin for comfort.

Tossing and turning. That’s all I could do for the past 3 hours. Lights out was at 10 pm. It was now 1 o clock in the morning and I have not slept a wink. Every time I closed my eyes I saw the same things. Leo bursting into flames. Octavian being launched into the massive ball of fire in the air.

Now I didn’t care all that much for Octavian, but Leo was my best friend. I knew about his plan all along. He told me he was going to find Calypso, and he would be back. It was just so hard to believe after what I saw last week. I haven’t been able to sleep for days now.

After the battle I had collapsed in exhaustion, and I think that was the last time I really got any rest since then.

Camp was still being cleaned up and there was evidence of the battle everywhere. Reyna, who had become like my sister, left to go back to Camp Jupiter with Hazel and Frank. My whole life felt like it had been turned upside down in the matter of 7 days.

I was restless. Chiron had me meet up with some of the Apollo campers daily for “mental health reasons”, but it wasn’t helping in the way that he had hoped. The only thing that helped was being around my best friends, Percy and Annabeth.

They had been my best friends since I was 13. I first went on a quest with them to recover the Golden Fleece from a huge cyclops. Times have changed since then. The war against Kronos almost felt like child’s play compared to everything we’ve dealt with since then.

Percy’s disappearance alone was enough to send me into a crazed state for weeks. That was the first time I dealt with insomnia. He and I always had a special connection. One that nobody else understood. Percy could calm me down in a way that nobody else ever was capable of. If Annabeth wasn’t by my side in that time I think I really would’ve lost it.

Even when he and Annabeth fell into Tartarus I didn’t break down like this. I had Reyna and Leo to get me through it.

As I rolled over in my empty cabin for the millionth time, I had a flashback to that day that they fell into the pit of Tartarus.

If Percy hadn’t jumped in after her, I would’ve. He pushed me back before he jumped in. I stood there with my brother, Nico, looking down hopelessly and trying to figure out what to do.

The boy, who my brother and I both had adored, was begging us to meet him at the other side of Tartarus. He promised us that he would be there, that he would get out. I could feel my heart being ripped out as I looked at them, but Nico and I swore to it.

I so badly wanted to jump in after them, but I couldn’t do it. I knew that I had to help the others.

After that, I was in a crazed state. Completely and hopelessly hyperfixated on getting them out.

The thought alone made me nauseous, and I considered running to throw up in the bathroom.

It’s not like I would be bothering anyone. Every night after I fall asleep, or in this case, pretend to fall asleep, Nico sneaks off to go see his boyfriend, Will.

I’m not angry at him for it. I purposely pretend to sleep so that he doesn’t feel bad about going. I know he’s struggling as much as I am.

I take a deep breath, hoping that I can settle my mind. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work. I lay there for another fifteen minutes, staring at my ceiling, before I decide to take action.

I stood up, put on my slippers, and quietly escaped my cabin- trying my best not to wake any other campers- or the harpies.

I knew exactly where I was going, though I wasn’t sure what would happen.

I hadn’t gone to his cabin this late at night since my nightmares after we’d escaped the Labyrinth. He used to really help me get through my feelings- that is, until Rachel came along.

The next summer, I found out that Rachel and Percy had been kissing, and after that I backed off. I know that now there isn’t anything between them, but Percy is my best friend, and I knew that I needed to keep it that way.

I quietly approached his door, knocking softly. I hoped that he was awake, but I knew the odds were slim. After no answer, I knocked again, slightly more desperate.

If he doesn’t answer this time, I’ll go. I thought.

After a minute, there was still no response so I turned around to head back to my cabin and brave the night ahead.

The door creaked slowly behind me, and I whipped around. Percy was standing there, looking like I had just woken him up from the best dream of his life.

“Hey.” I whispered, approaching hesitantly.

Without another word, he nods his head, gesturing for me to come into his cabin. Tyson wasn’t there. He had temporarily gone back to Camp Jupiter with Ella.

We both enter his silent cabin, and he shuts the door quietly behind us. The seasalt smell immediately hits me and all of my senses relax.

He sits on his bed and looks up at me, standing awkwardly. The idea seemed great, but now that I was standing in his room I wasn’t really sure what my plan was.

“What’s going on?” Percy asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

I looked down, suddenly feeling bad for waking him up. “I haven’t been sleeping.” I whispered.

“What?” He asks.

I repeat myself, “I haven’t been-“

“You haven’t been sleeping?” He asks, sounding slightly upset. He rests his elbows on his knees and puts his head in his hands.

I shake my head, feeling a blush over my face. I could feel my delirious brain and heavy eyes a little bit more now.

“And you’re just telling me now?” He asks, looking disappointed.

“I didn’t want to stress anyone out.” I say, smiling bashfully.

He rolls his eyes, patting the spot next to him.

“Think Chiron will give us a free pass if he finds us both in here?” He asks, obviously trying to make light of the situation.

I chuckle, nodding, but knowing that Chiron would do just about anything to help the campers right now. The thought reminded me even more about the battle.

Percy turns to lay back under his blankets, leaving an open space for me. This is exactly how we used to do it when I was having my nightmares.

I laid down in my spot, trying to get comfortable. I stared at the ceiling, immediately feeling more drowsy than I did in my room.

We both lay there in silence for a few minutes, before l hear the blankets rustle and turn my head to see Percy facing me.

I turn to face him too.

He purses his lips and furrows his eyebrows, scanning my face, before asking, “Why did you ever stop coming in here?”

I look at him nervously, realizing that we were finally going to have this conversation. “You and Rachel…” I trail off, not knowing what else to say.

His eyes instantly widen, “me and Rachel?” He asks.

I nod. “I didn’t want to get in the way of anything if you guys…” I pause, choosing my words, “if you guys were like, together or anything.”

He scans my face, as if trying to determine if I’m joking. He lets out a small laugh, “Rachel and I were never together. I thought you knew that.”

I shake my head, eyes focusing on anything but his face.

He chuckles again, and I tuck my head into his chest, attempting to end the conversation there, but he decided to continue, “You know,” he paused, wrapping an arm around me to play with my hair, “when Beckendorf came to get me for our mission? Remember that?”

I nod, unsure of where this was going.

“Well, he saw Rachel kiss me.”

I tensed, uncomfortable with this conversation.

“Then after we left her, to go to the ship,” he continued, “do you know what he said to me?”

I shook my head.

“He said, ‘I’m assuming you don’t want me to tell Y/N about that, right?’” Percy said, continuing to play with my hair.

“Really?” I asked, confused, “Why?”

He was silent for long enough for me to wonder if he even heard me before he spoke up again. “Because I didn’t want you to know.”

I pulled away, looking up at his face. I scrunched my eyebrows together out of confusion. “Why not? We tell each other everything.”

He raises his eyebrows, shaking his head, “Really?”

“What?” I asked.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. His eyes scanned my face again before wrapping an arm around me and pulling me back into his chest.

I finally start to doze off, feeling my body relax. Before I am completely asleep I can feel a soft kiss being placed on the top of my head. Before I can even feel the butterflies that come from it, I fall sound asleep.

I wake up before the sun is up, unsurprisingly. I’m happy to have gotten even a few hours of sleep.

I turn on my side to see Percy snoring softly with a line of drool coming down from his mouth. I giggle quietly before moving away a little bit.

I debate going back to my cabin, so that I don’t get caught in here. The last thing any of us needed right now was to deal with rumors about us sleeping in the same cabin together.

I sit up, my eyes scanning for my slippers in the dark room. Just as I find them I hear stirring behind me.

“What are you doing?” Percy asks groggily.

I turn to see him rubbing his eyes again and suddenly feel guilty for waking him up two times now.

“I was just going to sneak out before I get caught in here.” I whisper, reaching down to put my slippers on.

“Stay,” he whispered, eyes closed.

I smiled, looking at how peaceful he looked in that moment.

I shake my head, but rest a hand on his arm. “I shouldn’t.” I whisper.

He groans, turning closer to me and opens his eyes. He looks up at me, slowly reaching up as he brushes a strand of my hair out of my face.

“I’ll cover for you in the morning.” He whispers softly, looking at me hopefully.

I smile but shake my head, “If anyone finds out I stayed here…” I whisper, “you know how they all talk.”

He looks at me for a moment, and then another moment, eyes scanning my face, before responding, “You know everyone already thinks we’re together, right?”

My eyes widen in shock, completely taken aback and unsure if I heard him right. “Us? Like- you and me? Together?”

He nods, looking straight into my eyes, eyebrows furrowed.

“Why?” I ask, incredibly confused. I had never heard this before and I had never told anyone how I really felt. Not even Annabeth.

He stared incredulously at me for another moment, before whispering, “Are you kidding? I really can’t tell.”

I shook my head and shrugged.

“Well… we’re together all the time. You used to sleep here. When I went missing and got amnesia you were the only person I could remember. I almost lost it when you got hurt in the battle in manhattan…” he searched my face for my reaction, “I can keep going if you want.”

I shook my head, understanding. “I guess that kind of makes sense.”

He nodded, looking at me as if he was waiting for me to say something else.

I stared at him for a moment, before my delirium allowed me to ask a rather bold question.

“What do you think about that?” I whispered, looking into his eyes.

His gaze felt heavy. He stared straight into my eyes, coughing, before saying, “Uhhh… what do you mean?”

I shook my head, “Nevermind.” I whispered.

He grabbed my hand, looking directly into my eyes, before saying, “About what everyone says? Or about us being together?”

“Both.” I whisper, staring straight back at him.

He pauses for a moment, looking down at our hands, then back into my eyes. “I think they have a point. And I think that they’re right. That we are basically together. Unless you’re thinking something different?”

I nodded slowly, thinking about all of the years that I’ve brushed off other boys because I didn’t have eyes for them like I do for him. I thought about all the time that we spent apart, and how it felt like a piece of me was missing. I thought about the battle of manhattan, when I saw him fighting and I had never felt such pride in my heart before. I knew it all along, I just didn’t know how to show it.

“It’s not that easy though, seaweed brain. We’re not basically together until you ask me out.” I chuckle, looking back down at him and realizing how intently he’s looking at me.

I slowly kick off my shoes and lay back down next to him. He still is looking at me intently and hasn’t said a word.

“What’s wrong?” I whisper, after another moment of silence.

He shakes his head, looking deeply into my eyes, and I see his gaze flicker to my lips for a millisecond.

Suddenly I can feel my heartbeat pick up. I’m now aware of every centimeter of my body that is close to his. It’s like all of my senses are dialed to 11.

Before I can even think twice I lean forward just slightly and he immediately grabs my face and his lips are on mine.

The kiss is soft, slow, and everything I could’ve ever imagined.

I can feel his hesitation, almost like he’s afraid I’ll pull away if he makes the wrong move.

I reach my hand around the back of his head and run my hand through his hair, bringing him closer to me. The kiss slowly becomes more passionate, my heart rate accelerating.

I don’t think either of us can hold back anymore. I tilt my head slightly, it’s like something inside me snaps. The kiss is intense, full of years of love and yearning toward one another. His hand moves slowly under the hem of my sleep shirt, shakey fingers trailing up my back, and I gasp into his mouth, enjoying the new sensation.

We had been close before, but never like this.

I hear Percy groan quietly, the sound beautiful but desperate, and my body is suddenly on fire. His other hand reaches to the back of my next to pull me even closer, deepening the kiss so that our tongues are dancing with each other. I can feel him breathing heavily as his hands explore my skin, fingers digging in in a way I never knew I needed.

My hands run through his hair, one leaving to clutch his shoulder, pulling him even closer to me. Percy’s mouth moves to my jaw, trailing hot, open-mouthed kisses down my neck, and I bite my lip to keep from making a sound, but it’s impossible. I let out a soft gasp, pressing even further into him.

“Gods,” Percy groans against my neck, continuing to bury his face into my neck and collarbone, definitely leaving marks that he knows he shouldn’t be. Especially not if I’m walking out of his cabin in the morning. His lips find mine again, but this time it feels more frantic, like we’re both on the verge of losing control. His hands are fully under my shirt now, his touch insistent, and I can’t help the small groan that escapes me.

I can’t stand it anymore as I tug at his shirt, pulling it up, desperate to feel more. He helps me, urgently pulling it over his head before desperately crashing his mouth back onto mine. His skin feels incredibly warm, his muscles tensing beneath my touch as I slowly run my nails down his chest. He groans into the kiss, kicking my legs with his own so that he can move to hover over me.

I can feel my back press into the mattress as Percy hovers over me, the weight of it making me shiver. His hands roam lower, gripping my hips roughly, and his mouth never stops—kissing, biting, trailing heat down my neck and back up again to capture my lips. Every move, every touch, is more desperate, more intense, and I can feel the years of pent-up tension between us boiling over.

We continue like this for longer than we should, desperately grabbing onto each others skin, mouths all over eachothers faces and necks, before we finally allow the kiss to slow down. The kiss fades to a soft, gentle one, and we slowly pull away.

I stare into his eyes, feeling a blush cover my face when I realize that this is real, and that just happened. He has the same look on his face as me, breathing heavy. His hair is all out of place and part of me wants to continue where we left off and mess up his hair a little more.

I bite my lip, holding back the smile that is trying to take over my face. He grins at me, his eyes sparkling.

“We’re definitely doing that again.” He smirks at me playfully.

“What took you so long?” I ask, nudging his arm and letting him lay back down beside me.

He shrugged, “Was never the right time. Can’t say I haven’t thought about it though. Maybe a little too much…” he trailed off.

I rolled my eyes, smacking his arm playfully before realizing how exhausted I had become.

“Can we go back to sleep?” I whisper, tucking my head into his chest again.

He nods, pressing a kiss on my head, and this time I feel the whole swarm of butterflies invade my stomach. I smile, and doze off.

[stars-and-the-min]

☆ the wrong way to hard launch (13) | OP81

summary : oscar's girlfriend is a walking pr problem for literally everyone (including herself) social media au

pairing : oscar piastri x zhou!fem!singer!oc

a/n don't you love it when your ex starts trying to get back in your life?

masterlist | last part | part 13 | next part

selinabui_news

liked by ceciliapham and 10,185 others

selinabui_news 📸 New Lina pics!!! Photos from Cami's instagram stories <3 tagged: selinabui

linasgirl4 the only cutie patootie to ever cutie patootie

2cami4lina my girls went on a date 🩷💜

MESSAGES

from the phone of selina bui

INSTAGRAM

eb_jonno

liked by thomashoward and 212,948 others

eb_jonno when the touring part of tour starts to kick in tagged: emptybottles_official and lukaszhang

tommyhoward Never change Jonno 🤣 ↳ tina_kim @ tommyhoward what. the. fuck.

cameliazzz jonathan answer your phone

mrslukaszhang why does kas look so boyfie 🥰🥰🥰

MESSAGES

from the phone of selina bui

TWITTER

Thomas Howard @THowdy · 3d Bucharest Baby!! 🤪 ↳ emme @flowersforcami · 3d take that back FUCK YOU BETTER BE JOKING

EB Updates @emptybottles_news · 1d Lina's ex-boyfriend, NFL running back Thomas Howard, is at Bucharest Night 1 of the TMD Tour. ↳ liv is SEEING EB LIVE!! @olivielina · 23h can she not catch a break--

EB Updates @emptybottles_news · 16h Thomas Howard has been spotted at Bucharest Night 2 of the TMD Tour. This is the second show he's attended.

MESSAGES

from the phone of oscar piastri

TWITTER

↳ Oscar Piastri @OscarPiastri · 4m Flattered to know 😏 ↳ piaa⁸¹ @ papayaeightyone · 2m OSCAR???? ↳ emme @flowersforcami · 3m SELINA FIGHT BACK @EB_selina

lukas 🔛🔝 @lukiepookie28 · 13m i just bumped into kas and lina at my regular cafe... not even kidding like... i'm in shock ↳ lukas 🔛🔝 @lukiepookie28 · 12m they're about to leave how do i function sjdnfskdfn ↳ lukas 🔛🔝 @lukiepookie28 · 11m POTHO SCUERED DSJKFNSJKDFN

↳ kayla @luna_apocolypse · 7m STFU you got lina to take a photo of you and kas??? 😭 what was she like??? ↳ lukas 🔛🔝 @lukiepookie28 · 4m she told kas to fix his face 💀 ↳ kay ♡ @ blackcatluna · 1m i see he didn't listen

EB Updates @emptybottles_news · 20h Thomas Howard has been spotted at Vienna Night 1 of the TMD Tour. Personally, I recommend they get a restraining order. ↳ kayla @luna_apocolypse · 43m if he shows his face tonight, i will personally fly to vienna and kill him ↳ lukas 🔛🔝 @lukiepookie28 · 24m my show is tonight, i am willing to take one for the team

MESSAGES

from the phone of selina bui

TWITTER

piaa⁸¹ @ papayaeightyone · 2h personally, i think it's insane that oscar is in monaco wakeboarding ot some shit and lina is freezing her ass off on the other side of europe fighting off her ex ↳ piaa⁸¹ @ papayaeightyone · 2h OSCAR DO SOMETHING! HELP UR GIRL!

helen @helenjamie32 · 4h vienna n2 empty bottles fans... you have one job... we're gonna get that woman to sing something like hurt my feelings by tate with her ex in the crowd ↳ helen @helenjamie32 · 4h LET LINA BE MESSY!!! LET HER BE TOXIC!!! SHE DESERVES IT!!! IK SHE'S ON THIN ICE, SHE CAN SWIM ↳ helen @helenjamie32 · 4h you don't understand, i think i NEED her to say "she's got you right now, but i'm still on your mind" I NEED NEED NEED IT

TMD Tour News @EB-TMDTour · 18m The audience encore song for Vienna N2 was 'People Watching' by @ conangray. The band played a surprise second encore song of 'hurt my feelings' by @ tatemcrae afterward. #TMDWorldTour ↳ jules 🌿 @juliiaapxp · 8m @helenjamie32 oomf... what's it like being the oracle of apollo ↳ helen @helenjamie32 · 4m THRILLING SO FUCKING THRILLING AHAHA

piaa⁸¹ @ papayaeightyone · 20m that was the biggest gag ever omg. selina bui, rip ur social media forever but it was so so worth it 10/10, do it again ↳ piaa⁸¹ @ papayaeightyone · 19m changing the last lines? *chefs kiss* never change girlie, oscar u hit the jackpot with this one ↳ emme @flowersforcami · 3m "YOU wear MY number but SHE'S got what you like"??? we're planning the pr funeral but u slayed that, fck media training @EB_selina we're all hootin' and hollerin', u did so good with that baby

EB Bar @theemptybottlesbar · 14m want u so bad, baby, hurt my feelings... 🙄

↳ liv is SEEING EB LIVE!! @olivielina · 12m absolutely LIVING for the attitude, the sarcastic delivery was so cathartic ↳ emme @flowersforcami · 11m YOU WEAR MY NUMBER, GUESS I'M STILL ON YOUR MIND

INSTAGRAM

selinabui_news

liked by piastri_lina and 10,284 others

selinabui_news 17.05.24 | Lina spotted at Vienna International Airport. She's flying to Bologna, Italy ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix 💕 tagged: selinabui

piastri_lina oscalina reunion loading...

mrslukaszhang she's so happy 🥺 ↳ moonbeamlina @mrslukaszhang lmao she hates us (jk)

marie_h.sb she looks so thrilled to have verbally eviscerated her ex in front of a crowd of thousands and then immediately fly off to see her bf. she's straight-up thriving <3

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:

taglist @ririyulife @ashy-kit @fionaschicken @namgification @cherry-piee @urfavsgf @eiaaasamantha @sp1rl @destinyg237

[rambleonwaywardson]

Clegan Astronaut AU - Part 10

Masterpost Read on AO3

AU Summary: the boys as modern day NASA astronauts. Taking place in 2025, Bucky is about to head to the moon as mission commander of Artemis III while Buck is CAPCOM at NASA. Established relationship (obnoxiously in love).

Author's Note: Since some of you were interested in exactly how accurate some of this is, fyi the experiments Curt and Bucky implement here, LEAF and LDA, are real experiment proposals that have been selected to fly on Artemis III. Not much info is available on them though, so much of their installation processes are made up by yours truly.

---

November 18, mission day 12 Ridge near Shackleton Crater, Artemis 3 Landing Site

It’s raining. 

At least, Bucky imagines it is. He imagines that there’s dark clouds rolling in overhead, pops of electricity jumping across them, flashing through the sky. He imagines he can hear thunder rumbling, a breeze ruffling through his hair the same way it did on launch day, when he stood outside and stared at the sky, no one to say goodbye to. He imagines big, fat drops of rain hitting his face, splattering on the tip of his nose and streaking down his cheeks. 

He can almost smell it, the damp earth scent of a hurricane mixing with the salty air blowing in from the gulf. Home. He can almost feel it, just out of reach.

Bucky opens his eyes. He has half a mind to close them again when faced with the reality that it is not, in fact, raining. But he sighs, deciding he can’t really complain, even if he misses something so simple as weather. The lunar horizon is a decent trade-off. He just kind of wishes it wasn’t so still all the time. It reminds him of survival training in the desert, when the only movement was the heat radiating up from the ground, creating a teasing mirage to goad his dehydrated brain. Except here, there’s not an atmosphere to do even that.

It’s their third full day on the lunar surface.

“Is it raining in Houston, Benny?”

There’s a brief pause. “Is that… some sort of code, or…?” 

Bucky thinks for a moment, and then realizes that his words did, in fact, sound similar to ‘are the flowers blooming in Houston,’ a coded transmission from Apollo 13. That’s what Commander Jim Lovell said in order to ask Ken Mattingly, on CAPCOM, if he’d contracted the measles, exposure to which had caused Mattingly to be scrubbed from 13 at the last minute.

“No,” Bucky clarifies. “Just wanna know if it’s raining.”

There’s another brief silence while, Bucky assumes, Benny asks if anyone knows the weather outside of their windowless Mission Control room. He doesn’t bother to ask Bucky why he wants to know. All the CAPCOMs have quickly figured out it’s easier just to answer whatever bullshit question the astronauts ask. “No. It’s colder than usual, though. Only 46 degrees now.”

Bucky’s satisfied with that answer, and he’s not really sure why. He imagines Gale, who at this moment is probably just waking up in their home on the bay. Since it’s cold, he’ll be bundled in flannel pants and Bucky’s Yankees sweatshirt, which is just the slightest bit too big for him and hangs off his frame in a way that makes Bucky want to wrap him up tight in his arms. He might even have a throw blanket pulled around his shoulders as he wanders groggily through the house. Bucky doesn’t know how that man doesn’t overheat, but he knows all too well that Gale’s hands are always freezing. Bucky usually takes it upon himself to warm them up.

Two huskies are probably trailing at Gale’s heels. Bucky hopes they keep his hands warm.

He wonders if that’s a weird thing to think about. He decides it’s not. He mindlessly grabs at the wedding ring dangling from his neck, only to remember that he’s in an EVA suit. His ring is in Starship.

“Quit whatever the fuck you’re doin’ and help me out over here, Bucky.” 

Bucky blinks and tries to turn his head to look at Curt, and then remembers that that doesn’t work in the suit either. He awkwardly turns his whole body before bounding several steps towards his crewmate, who is standing beside their rover. That’s the only way to move on the moon, bounding. Bucky used to mimic the movement as a kid, pretending to be Neil Armstrong in his backyard. But he’s learned in the past few days that it’s actually, literally, the only way to get anywhere in these bulky suits with almost no gravity to hold them down. Especially while they’re still early on in the EVA. The pressure in the suit is almost as high as it goes and inhibits their range of motion.

“What’s up?” Bucky stops in front of the open, unpressurized rover. They may be the first Artemis crew members on the moon, but as far as transportation goes, they drew the short straw. Starting with Artemis 4, surface crews will have a fully pressurized rover for long-distance drives. Bucky and Curt get basically the same piece of shit (sorry, NASA) that Apollo got, but bigger and supposedly less shoddy.

That last qualification has yet to be proven. Curt drops to his knees by the front left wheel. “Hold the damn tire while I replace the lug nuts.”

Bucky joins him on the ground and holds the tire in place. During their EVA yesterday, they took the rover on its inaugural drive, and that damn wheel is already causing them problems. But hey, at least they have the equivalent of a truck bed for hauling things.

Except, you need functioning wheels to haul things.

He grumbles about it the whole time, but Curt manages to get the wheel secured, though he’s still suspicious of it. “Well, good as we’re gonna get.”

Bucky stands back and stares at the wheel, agreeing that it’s still not quite right. But whatever it is is beyond what they can fix at the moment. So Bucky steps onto the rover, turns it on, and drives it forward. Curt takes a couple of bounding steps to catch up, jumps on beside Bucky, and they get on their way. It’s drivable, so they’ll take it.

–

“Oh shit. Fuck. Shit.” Bucky tries to reverse the rover, then tries to go forward again. Reverse, forward, reverse, forward. “Fuck.”

“Shit?” Rosie’s voice buzzes in Bucky’s ear. He and Alex are well on their way into deep space, approaching the furthest point in their orbit. 

“Why the fuck are you here? Don’t ya have observations or somethin’ you could be doin'?”

“This is so much more interesting.”

Bucky has gotten the front left wheel of the rover stuck between two rocks. They’re not even very big rocks, so it’s embarrassing in that same kind of way as when you get your hand into a small space but then can’t get it back out.

It’s also the same wheel that he and Curt just fixed. Curt looks on, judgmentally. “If you break that wheel again I’ll murder you with a hammer.”

Brutal. Bucky’s mouth moves on autopilot, like a parrot repeating something unhelpful, as he conducts a pathetic million-point turn, shifting the angle of the tire by mere degrees every time he changes gears. “If iron can kill a star it sure as hell can kill you.”

There’s a pretty lengthy silence as Bucky continues his sad attempt at getting out of this predicament. Personally, he’s thinking about how, at this point, it would be faster to walk to their destination. Everyone else, however, is still hung up on his little proverb.

“What the hell does that mean?” Alex finally asks. Oh great, he’s here, too. Witnessing Bucky’s failure.

“It’s something Buck says,” Benny offers helpfully. “Something about stars dying when they start fusing iron.”

There’s a chorus of understanding hums that rise and then trail off as everyone realizes that it still doesn’t really make sense. 

Alex: “Is that… a threat?”

Curt: “Can it be a threat if no one knows what he’s sayin’?”

Rosie: “Kinda makes it more of a threat, doesn’t it?”

Alex: “I don’t usually know what Buck is sayin’.”

Curt: “That’s just cause he don’t say much.”

Alex: “Or he’s too smart for us.” The others make noises of agreement. Major Gale Cleven. Mr. High school valedictorian, graduated summa cum laude with a degree in aerospace engineering and a minor in physics. Whatever.

Bucky: “Got it!”

The rover lurches forward, nearly throwing Curt, completely unprepared, off the side. He reaches out at the last second to grab Bucky’s arm, and for a moment it seems like they both might take a dirt bath on the moon, but Bucky holds tight to the steering wheel and keeps them both on their feet as he drives triumphantly into the distance.

They’re heading in a straight line towards the sun on the horizon, and in Bucky’s mind they’re cruising at high speed like Thelma and Louise (though, ideally, not off a cliff). In reality, they’re bumping along pretty slowly towards a little greenhouse that’s going to house their little plants for their cute little moon experiment.

Bucky parks the rover outside of the greenhouse. They spent much of the day yesterday setting it up, flipping NASA’s assembly directions this way and that as they tried to make sense of them like a piece of IKEA furniture. It’s kind of laughable, how such an unassuming little structure can look so damn out of place. It’s not even pressurized, having to do nothing but stay standing and block some of the solar radiation. It reminds Bucky of the Wizard of Oz, as if a tornado just picked a greenhouse up off the Earth’s surface and deposited it in the middle of the moonscape, where it sticks out like a sore thumb. 

He steps down off the rover and walks around the back, where their first experimental payload is sitting on the bed. “LEAF” is printed across it in huge letters, and underneath, “Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora.” 

Curt meets Bucky at the back of the rover and pulls down the little cart they’d brought with them. Together, they heave LEAF off the bed and onto the cart and wheel it, inelegantly and with a lot of swearing, to the door of the greenhouse.

“Okay, you go in, I’ll cover you.” Curt steps aside and presses his back to the greenhouse wall, holding his hands together in front of him in what Bucky assumes is supposed to be an approximation of a handgun. The effect is lost with the EVA gloves. 

Bucky glares at him – though that effect is also lost through an EVA helmet – as he opens the door and struggles to drag the cart over the threshold. “You’re an idiot.”

“I’m your idiot.”

Benny chuckles over coms. “Don’t let Buck hear you say that.”

“Buck ain’t here,” Curt says.

There’s a crackle, and then a warm, tired drawl. “Buck’s right here.” Bucky’s got no idea what time it is – that’ll happen when the sun stays basically in the same spot all day – but Mission Control must be in the middle of a shift change. 

Curt: “Shit, our cover’s blown.” He lowers his hands and steps away from the wall. 

Bucky: “Hey babe.”

Gale: “I’m watching you, Curt… Hi, John.” John smiles. It’s not darling or babe, but he grudgingly accepts Gale’s insistence on trying to speak professionally on shift. Even if Bucky refuses to do so.

Curt: “Actually, you’re only listenin’ to me.”

Benny: “That’s my cue to leave, boys. Have fun with your plants.”

Curt: “I will, thank you very much.”

Curt finally decides he’s had enough of watching Bucky struggle on his own and grabs onto the back of the cart, giving it a good shove that sends it the rest of the way into the greenhouse, narrowly avoiding knocking Bucky on his ass.

Curt: “Hey, Buck, wanna know what else I’ll have fun with?”

Gale: “No.”

Curt: “Bein’ Bucky’s big spoon since you ain’t here.”

Bucky: “Buck’s the little spoon. So that means you gotta be my little spoon.”

Silence.

Bucky wonders how hard Gale is blushing, and how many people just turned to stare at him in Mission Control. He wonders how many of them will start calling him Little Spoon, at least for the day. He feels a little bad. But only a little. Everyone’s always told him that he doesn’t have a filter, so it isn’t his fault that Gale married him anyways. 

Gale: “I want you to know, the only reason I’m not gonna give you both the silent treatment is because it’s my job to keep you alive.”

It’s a good thing Bucky won’t be home for dinner tonight, or any night in the near future, because he’s pretty sure Gale “everything you say is being transcribed” Cleven would give him the silent treatment for embarrassing him like that.

Gale: “Get to work, boys.”

Bucky’s not sure exactly how LEAF works, but they’ve been tasked with it anyways. It’s a little space-age terrarium straight out of a sci-fi movie that’s being housed within the greenhouse structure. Inside is an enclosed growth chamber, in which a few different crop species that Bucky has quite frankly never heard of are supposed to grow hydroponically. The chamber protects them from the lunar environment, allowing NASA to study the effects of space radiation and partial gravity on plant growth and stress.

Bucky and Curt have been instructed to give the seeds inside LEAF water and nutrients through some elaborate external insertion mechanism as well as monitor their progress every day. By the end of the week, they’ll hopefully be able to harvest some of the faster-growing plants.

Once LEAF is in place, Curt sets to work ripping strips of duct tape off the roll he keeps strapped to his EVA suit. He sticks them on the glass above each crop species and labels them: Duckweed, Field Mustard, and Thale-Cress. Bucky is setting up the cameras and sensors they were instructed to deploy around it. Gale is grudgingly forced to speak to them – and act nice about it – so he can relay instructions on what the fuck they’re supposed to do. 

“Is it working now?” Bucky asks. He’s spent far too long trying to get this one specific camera in front of the growth chamber to record.

“No,” Gale answers. “Did you turn it on?”

“Yes I fuckin’ turned it on.” Bucky crouches in front of the camera and gets as close to it as his helmet will allow. “Wait. wait wait wait.” He presses another button. “Okay now it’s on.”

Gale stays quiet for a moment, presumably waiting for video feed to pop up in Mission Control. “We see it now, Bucky.”

“Alright,” Curt says. “Let’s grow some moon plants!”

–

Thankfully, Gale doesn’t follow through with his threat of the silent treatment even after he finishes his shift and hands the console over to Helen. Thirty minutes after leaving Mission Control, he’s tucked into a small room at Johnson Space Center that they’ve designated “the Family Room,” where NASA has a direct two-way audio/video line set up for Artemis astronauts to talk to their family members, even on the moon. His tie is loose, top buttons undone, and his hair gel has given up. Exhausted, he takes a sip of his coffee. His… fourth? Fifth? Of the day? Maybe? 

Bucky has told him time and again that if he drank alcohol the same way he drinks coffee, he wouldn’t be sober a day in his life.

With Curt off in another corner of the lander, headphones on as he watches a movie downloaded on his NASA-issued computer, Bucky is in his commander’s seat. He’s looking back at Gale through the webcam on his own computer, for once able to talk to each other with some semblance of privacy. And they can see each other.

When the video call first connected, the first words out of Bucky’s mouth were that Gale looked like shit. Gale glared at him until Bucky rolled his eyes and gave him a more appropriate greeting. Then, and only then, did Gale drop the iciness and take the opportunity to talk to his husband.

“So you know how in The Martian they say once you grow crops somewhere you’ve colonized it?” Gale’s not entirely sure what part of their present conversation – about their elderly neighbor, Mrs. Mason’s suspected torrid affair – caused Bucky to ask this question.

To be honest, though, the ability, as CAPCOM, to disregard the why of an astronaut’s question and simply follow up without a second thought, is a trained skill. And Bucky has always been the only training Gale needs. “Pretty sure that’s not just from The Martian.”

Bucky narrows his eyes and shrugs. “Okay. But yeah?”

Gale nods. “Okay.”

“Are we colonizing the moon?”

“No.”

Bucky eyes Gale suspiciously and leans closer to the camera. “Why?”

Gale sighs and leans back in his chair, thinking about it for a moment. “Shouldn’t the plants be in the lunar soil to call it colonized? Yours are growing hydroponically above the surface. And they haven’t grown yet.”

“Are you just sayin’ that cause you’re still mad at me?” Bucky knew he wouldn’t escape his ‘little spoon’ comment unscathed.

Gale lifts his coffee cup and takes a sip to hide his smile. 

They sit in a familiar and comfortable silence for a moment before Bucky runs a hand through his hair and leans back. “I wish you could see this, Buck. I wish you were here with me.”

“I’m with you,” Gale reminds him.

“You know what I mean.”

Bucky glances out the window of Starship, and he looks so wistful and beautiful. His eyes are wide with love and wonder, at the beautiful alien world around him on one side of the camera and at the wonderful man that keeps his world turning on the other. He looks excited with a child-like awe, just like he looked on the station. Just like he looks every time he flies a plane. Just like he looked so often in college when Gale was still falling in love with him bit by bit. And just like he looked on their wedding day. That same wild wanderlust and love for the universe that has always blown Gale away. 

When Bucky looks at him again, Gale says, “Tell me about it.” He’s been right there with the crew almost every step of the way. He knows the mission plan inside and out. He’s seen the footage they’ve taken and he’s heard their reactions to almost every milestone. But he wants to hear it from Bucky. Not from Mission Commander Major John Egan.  

Bucky grins at him. “It’s like a dream, Buck. Like… nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s better than I thought it would be.”

“Even the whole being stuck in a space capsule and you die if you leave it without a suit thing?”

Bucky shrugs. “If I had to die, the moon isn’t a bad place to do it.”

He knows he made a mistake the moment the words are out of his mouth, and he’s not usually one to admit that. But he watches Gale deflate, his brow crinkle as he works his jaw and looks away from the camera. “Don’t say that,” Gale whispers at the same time that Bucky raises his hand and says “Sorry, not the time.”

Bucky knows that Gale is a little scared, no matter how much he tries to hide it from everyone else. He won’t say it out loud, and he would hate it if Bucky did. So Bucky doesn’t. He’d be afraid, too, if the roles were switched. And one day they will be. Gale gives a curt nod to his apology, and they don’t speak of it again.  

“The sun is always so low in the sky,” Bucky says instead. “Like you’re always waitin’ for it to rise but it never does. The shadows are something out of a nightmare, I swear to God. They’re huge and fuckin’ dark. We use flashlights to walk through them. You know that.” He tells Gale every detail he can think of about what it’s like on the moon. The way the shadows streak the landscape like spilled ink. The way the soil feels under his boots, sinking and crunching at the same time like the sharpest grains of sand. The way Earth looks so small and unassuming, how peaceful it seems even though they know it’s anything but, a little blue oasis in the middle of a dark universe. He tells Gale that he looks at that planet in the lunar sky every night before he sleeps, and he thinks about him. Gale was right, after all. He is sappy. At least about his husband. 

He tells him about the parts of the EVAs that Gale missed, when Benny was CAPCOM instead. He talks about the rover breaking not even a full day into its life cycle, the tire somehow coming clean off when it got caught on a rock and causing Bucky to tumble into the dirt (“I’m fine! Gale, I’m fine. Benny would’ve told you if I wasn’t fine”). He talks about the strange rock formation that he and Curt found yesterday morning – several giant boulders stacked on top of one another in a way that doesn’t look a) natural, or b) balanced. Then they start discussing the other experimental payloads that Curt and Bucky are scheduled to install in the coming days, but they quickly agree that talking shop can wait until they’re actually working.

When Gale yawns and rubs his eyes, looking distractedly off to the side, Bucky frowns. “Hey, doll, look at me.” Gale blinks and then does as he’s told, lazily tilting his head and raising his eyebrow in a way that says ‘happy?’ Bucky wants to reach through the screen and brush back the loose strands of hair that have fallen over his forehead. “You’d tell me if you weren’t okay, right?”

Gale huffs and nods, allowing the smallest smile. “Yeah, darlin’. I’d tell you. Just tired as hell.” 

“Promise?”

“Cross my heart.”

As their call comes to an end, they spend a minute or two simply staring at each other, taking each other in. Neither of them know when, or if, they’ll be able to schedule another call like this during the mission. 

“Stay safe out there,” Gale finally says. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Bucky wants to say ‘don’t count on it,’ flash a shit-eating grin, like they used to before either of them did anything remotely dangerous. It’s their little morbid joke. Their way of dealing with the uncertainty and worry without having to think too much about it.

But he knows this time is different. This mission isn’t like the others, and there’s no use pretending it is. Looking at Gale, seeing how exhausted he is and knowing how tirelessly he’s working on the ground, how much sleep he’s probably losing between his job and worrying about Bucky… hell, Bucky can’t bring himself to say it. He doesn’t want to risk making his husband’s face fall again today.

So instead, he says a quiet, “I miss you.” It makes the corner of Gale’s mouth pull up in a sweet little smile, and Bucky thinks he did something right.

Gale presses his fingers to the corner of the camera. “I love you.”

“Talk to you tomorrow, angel.”

–

When Gale gets home that evening, he grabs the mail out of their mailbox. Flipping through the various advertisements and envelopes, he stops short at the front door. Tucked into the middle is a piece of paper with unfamiliar, messy handwriting scrawled across it.

“Praying the queer dies on the moon.” 

Gale stares down at the message, then glances up and down their quiet, friendly neighborhood street. They’ve lived here for a few years now, since before Gale’s ISS mission. They’ve gotten to know their neighbors well. Other than Benny, who lives at the end of the road, it’s mostly a collection of young families – many of which are associated with the space center in some way – and retirees who have never been anything but kind to Gale and John. Everyone has always been very neighborly, and Gale would go so far as to call most of them friends. They have dinners together, throw a block party here and there, do the usual neighborly favors for one another. Hell, Gale’s even babysat for some of the families from time to time. John taught a couple of the kids how to ride a bike.

Certainly, none of them have ever expressed something like this, and Gale doesn’t believe for a moment that this message came from anyone around here. He has half a mind to go next door and ask Mrs. Mason if she saw anyone stick this in his mailbox. Aside from the fact that Gale is fairly certain the widow is having an affair with a much younger married man, she’s always looked out for him and John. She also takes it upon herself to play neighborhood watch and always seems to know everything about everyone on their street. If anyone saw this happen, it’s her. But he doesn’t want to worry her, and he certainly doesn’t want her telling their other neighbors about it.

He’s done a decent job of avoiding the worst comments on social media, mostly because he barely goes on social media unless Marge tells him he needs to keep up his online presence. He knows the naysayers are still out there, though. And now it’s crossed the digital line. 

If we’re lucky, the fag…

Disgusted, Gale grits his teeth, crumples the paper, and tosses it straight into the recycle bin with the rest of the junk mail. He takes a breath and tries to push down the anger. Then he walks into his house, the one he shares with his wonderful, brave husband, and he laughs as the dogs rush to greet him.

–

November 19

It’s close to 3am in Houston. Benny’s desk is littered with empty coffee cups, gum wrappers, and an empty takeout container from what he supposes is technically lunch. Meals don’t make as much sense when your work schedule is from midnight to 8am. Nothing makes as much sense when your work schedule is from midnight to 8am. He finds it funny: he used to eat tacos at 3am when he was in college, but that was a product of burning the candle at both ends rather than working the night shift. Night shift for NASA Mission Control.

Except, it’s not technically night shift either, because according to GMT, the time zone that Mission Control and the crew operate on, it’s actually nearing 8am. Which is a far less acceptable time for eating tacos.

The crew has been awake for two hours now. This morning’s wake-up alarm on Starship was Hot To Go by Chappell Roan. No one has admitted to choosing that song yet, but most people are betting on Curt. Benny, however, thinks it was all Bucky. He has to admit, there are few things funnier at 1am than a room full of extensively trained, highly professional, and terribly exhausted flight controllers in business clothes singing “H-O-T-T-O-G-O, You can take me hot to go” over and over.

“Missing the wife, Egan?” Benny asked once Bucky had shut off the alarm. There was quiet snickering from the flight controllers behind him. Bucky didn’t dignify that with a response.

Gale really doesn’t know what he’s missing with these wake-up calls. 

While Rosie and Alex are nearing apolune, the point in their orbit farthest from the moon, Bucky and Curt are now out on the lunar surface once again. They’re just about 15 minutes into their morning EVA, which is scheduled for 5 hours. Their first stop is checking in on LEAF.

Bucky: “Is that…”

Curt: “Yes.”

Bucky: “Hi there.”

The flight controllers look at the video feed in awe. 

Inside the growth chamber, two little seedlings have sprouted, tiny green leaves reaching up towards the sunlight. No matter how small, there’s something about seeing life take root in an environment designed to take life away that feels extraordinary. 

–

40 minutes in, and Curt and Bucky have driven the rover further out from Starship than they’ve gone thus far. That busted wheel is holding, but they’ve brought a repair kit with them, not liking the way it rattles here and there over the uneven terrain. “Ain’t no Triple A on the moon,” Curt had said as he tossed the kit into the rover. Then he looked at Bucky a little too pointedly. “But don’t think for a second that this is permission to do somethin’ stupid.” 

Either way, they made it to the other side of the connecting ridge next to Shackleton, and the rover is still intact. They’re surveying the surface, trying to hash out where they should install their second of three scientific instruments. The Lunar Dielectric Analyzer (LDA) is meant to use electric currents in the soil to detect the presence of water ice below the surface. The astronauts are also collecting soil samples for the geologists back home, dumping dusty regolith into bags and labeling them with their coordinates.

In the pitch black shadow of the connecting ridge, they have to work by flashlight. They were instructed to check a variety of sites, both light and dark, but they’re starting with the ones that receive less sunlight, since they’re colder and more likely to have the right conditions for ice to exist. Shackleton itself was identified by scientists as having ice deposits, making the ridge an ideal mission site. However, short of rappelling into the crater, which they will not be doing, this is the closest they can get to those known deposits at the moment. Bucky is closer to the crater, up on an incline with the rover, while Curt is further down, about 60 or 70 yards away.

“Note,” Bucky says. “Site B, sharp gray dust that won’t get the fuck off my gloves.”

“Hey, that’s what I have at site C!” Curt exclaims. He pops up in the distance, shining his flashlight up towards Bucky. Bucky shines his back, and Curt waves.

Bucky: “Houston, site B doesn’t seem any more promising than A, and I don’t like this incline. Thinkin’ we should stick to flatter surfaces.”

Benny: “Roger. We will eliminate site B as an option.”

Bucky: “Okay, I’m gonna head back down to Curt.”

Bucky steps up onto the rover and turns it on, waiting for the headlights to flicker to life. Then he eases into drive, and starts to slowly descend the slope. 

–

Benny sips on his coffee and jots down a few notes about the LDA candidate sites. They’ll have to make a decision in the next hour or so in order to stay on track with the EVA schedule. But with the issues they’ve been having with the rover, he doesn’t want to rush them along too much.

“Bucky, how’s that rover wheel doin’?”

“Seems fine,” Bucky replies, but Benny doesn’t like the hint of uncertainty coming through. “Still seems off, but goin’ smoother than it was.”

“I’ll check it when you get down here,” Curt says. “Might just need tightened again.”

Benny makes a note for Red Shift that they’ll have to build in time to troubleshoot that wheel a little better during the afternoon EVA. He relays the thought to Red Bowman, the Blue Shift flight director. He agrees.

“Alright Bucky,” Benny says. “We’ll get you guys some time to work on that wheel this afternoon. For now just take it easy and-”

“Fuck!” 

“Bucky?”

Benny hears Bucky’s breath catch, followed by a few aggravated grunts, and then silence.

What the fuck just happened?

“Bucky?” Benny glances around the room. Red and several of the other flight controllers are doing the same, many looking right at him. He blinks and looks at his console. His own heart rate is creeping up. “John? John, do you copy?”

Nothing.

He pushes his chair back and gets to his feet. He doesn’t know why, but he can’t stand sitting down all of a sudden. He tries to keep his voice steady as he watches the seconds tick by on the mission clock. “John, come in John.”

“Flight?” Smokey, the Blue Shift flight surgeon, looks first to Red, and then to Benny. All three of them are on their feet, forming a triangle that stretches across Mission Control as they stare at each other in alarm. The rest of the room is silent.

Smokey looks down at his console. “Major Egan’s vitals are all over the place. His suit pressure-”

Benny is suddenly aware of a very faint beeping noise coming in over Bucky’s coms. A suit alarm.

He’s very worried, just for a moment, that he might pass out.

–

From where he’s kneeling in the darkness of the ridge, Curt can hardly see anything. Since the moon has no atmosphere for sound to travel through, he also can’t hear anything other than the voices over coms. He scrambles to his feet the moment he hears Bucky yell “Fuck.” One word, but the tone in which it’s said is all too familiar to Curt, a fellow pilot. It’s a tone that’s, all at once, as horrified as it is resigned. The moment you know you’re going down and there’s essentially nothing you can do about it.

His flashlight beam barely goes far enough for him to make anything out for certain, but he can see glinting metal flashing through the darkness. Its pattern isn’t consistent enough to be the rover easing down the slope like it’s supposed to.

He squints, watching it for a few more seconds, before he says “Oh god.” The rover is tumbling end over end down the slope, and part of him can’t help but think how wrong it is that there’s no crashing sounds, no sound of metal banging and bending. It’s just quiet. Like a silent movie. Benny’s in his ear, trying to get John to respond, and Curt realizes that, wherever John is, he can’t respond. John’s not going to respond. And he knows he needs to tell Mission Control what he’s seeing, but there’s not enough room in his brain for that. All he can think is run. 

So he fucking runs. 

His boots slip and slide in the regolith as he takes awkward, bounding steps up the slope, too much effort for not enough gain. His suit is still stiff, keeping him from bending his joints enough to run, but he has to. He has to. 

Smokey must note that his heart rate is spiking, because Benny’s saying “Curt, are you okay? You’re using too much oxygen.”

“I’m not concerned about my fuckin’ oxygen,” he growls. The slope is getting steeper, and he starts stumbling over his own feet after about 20 yards. The beam of his flashlight is shaking uncontrollably, but he can see the metal of the rover somewhere ahead, reflecting the light. It’s finally come to a stop, about 15 more yards away.

He hears Benny ask, “Curt, do you have visual?”

“Uh huh.” That’s all he gives them, trudging on even as the loose dust and rock under his feet falls away, making it near impossible to get anywhere. He’s practically running in place like a damn cartoon. He slips and goes down on his knees, catching himself with his hands. His flashlight tumbles away and he lunges to grab it before he gets himself lost in the darkness. “Fuck fuck fuck.” 

He rips a piece of duct tape off the roll looped to his EVA suit and uses it to secure the flashlight to his shoulder. He adds a few more pieces over top, ensuring it’ll stay, and then he drags himself to his feet again. He’s breathing too hard. He knows with sudden clarity that if he doesn’t get himself under control, he won’t have enough oxygen to get back, just like Benny said. And if he can’t get back, he can’t save John.

He takes one more deep breath and then forces himself to calm down.

Benny is still saying John’s name. 

When Curt finally makes it to the rover, though, he knows there isn’t going to be an answer. All there is is a quiet beeping noise buzzing around Curt’s brain like a fly. 

The rover is on its side but, somehow, miraculously, still on, headlights shining into the shadowed unknown. That stupid left wheel is laying flat on the ground right beside it. All of the materials they’d packed, including the LDA payload and the repair kit, are scattered across the slope, and Bucky…

Bucky is lying on the ground, face up and half under the rover. When Curt gets to him, he drops to his knees and puts one hand on Bucky’s shoulder. With the other hand, he rips the duct taped flashlight off his suit and shines it on his commander’s face. “Bucky?” he whispers, even though he knows it’s useless. 

Bucky’s eyes are closed, and Curt can’t tell if he’s breathing or not. He realizes that the quiet, incessant beeping he’s hearing over coms is an alarm from Bucky’s EVA suit. In the glow of the flashlight, he sees something dark glistening inside Bucky’s helmet, above and behind his head. After a second, he realizes that it’s blood, seeping through his com cap. It's smeared across his forehead, too, trailing down his temple.

For all the oxygen he was using before, Curt can barely breathe, now. “Benny?”

“Is he awake, Curt?” 

Curt freezes, trying to sort through that question. Is he awake means he’s not dead. Houston still has his vitals. He’s not dead. 

Curt swallows and clenches his jaw. “Benny, we have a big, big problem.”

–

Alive. He’s alive. He’s alive.

For how much longer?

Benny is forced to remain calm, something he’s familiar with as a pilot. It’s just, usually, as a pilot, your crew members aren’t on another planetary body hundreds of thousands of miles away.

But he works through it anyway. Work the problem. Work the fucking problem.

He guides Curt through getting the rover righted, through pulling Bucky’s unconscious body away from the wreckage, through tracking down the repair kit, through reattaching the wheel. He’ll barely remember any of this by tomorrow. He barely remembers any of it now. 

He looks at Red across the room as a horrible, urgent thought strikes him right in the chest. “We have to tell Gale before Red Shift comes in.”

Usually, when an astronaut gets hurt on the moon, they wait until the situation is under control to contact the family. It’s just, usually, when there’s an astronaut involved, the family members aren’t scheduled to come in for a Mission Control shift in two hours.

Red's eyes lock on him, and Benny sees them widen almost imperceptibly. He nods. They both know: it has to be Benny. There’s no other choice. Red turns to the nearest flight controller and grabs them by the arm. “Get Helen here. Now.”

–

It’s raining. 

Fat, heavy drops pounding on the roof of the house in Nassau Bay. Pops of electricity flash through the sky, jumping from cloud to cloud, and the smell of damp Earth mixes with the salty air blowing in from the Gulf. 

But none of these are what wake Gale Cleven. 

It’s not even the dogs, with their wet noses and hopeful eyes and insistent whines. Instead, it’s a gentle hand shaking his shoulder. John?  

No, not John. Can’t be John. 

“Buck, wake up.” The voice is calm and low and yet… sad. There’s only two other people with a key to this house. One of them is Marge, and the other… shouldn’t be here either. 

Gale opens his eyes and stares out the window into the eerie, rainy night. Slowly, he turns his head to squint at Benny in the dim light of his bedside lamp. “Benny? Why…? Am I-” 

Why are you here? Am I late? Did I oversleep? That’s not like myself. It’s still dark outside.

These are all thoughts that don’t make it out of his mouth, stuck in the quicksand of his brain as he groggily turns his head and looks at the clock on the bedside table. It’s only 5am. He wasn’t even planning to get up until 5:30.

He stares blankly at the time for a few solid seconds, trying to understand, before his entire world comes to a screeching halt. If Benny’s here… 

Benny would’ve told you if I wasn’t okay. 

Gale’s heart starts pounding before he feels like it drops clear out of his chest, nausea rising to take its place. His lungs stop taking in air, and his hands scramble at the bedsheets as he tries to sit up straight.

No. 

Benny’s hand slides off Gale’s shoulder in his panicked movement, and the disappearance of that warm, comforting touch is another shock to Gale’s system. He’s untethered. A feeling of loss swells through him as he looks up at his friend. 

Benny is looking down at the floor, though, avoiding eye contact. He isn’t saying anything.

The room spins.

No. 

When Benny looks up again, Gale is staring back at him with the widest, most horror-stricken eyes, sitting there, looking exhausted and confused and wrecked and frightened, gripping too hard at the fabric of the old Yankees sweatshirt that Benny knows doesn't smell like Bucky anymore. Benny’s own heart breaks into pieces. He wants to fall apart right there and then, but he can’t. It's his job not to. Instead, he sits there calmly on the edge of the bed, puts his hand back on Gale’s shoulder, and he realizes that there’s a faint trembling there.

He takes a deep breath as he looks Gale in the eye. 

“No,” Gale whispers. He shakes his head. His breath starts coming back in slow and shallow spurts, like his body is trying to boycott oxygen until he knows that his other half is still breathing, too. “Is- Is he-”

Talk to you tomorrow, angel.

If we’re lucky the fag will die up there.

Praying the queer dies on the moon.

I love you.

If I had to die, the moon isn’t a bad place to do it. 

Don’t count on it don’t count on it don’t count on it... 

“He’s alive.”

Gale makes a terrible noise somewhere between a gasp and a sob, his heart and lungs going back to work in fast-forward as he bows his head, clutching it in his hands.

Benny swallows. “But it’s bad, Buck. It’s bad.”

…

…

Part 11

[livingforstars]

Earth Rise - December 25th, 1995.

"During the 1968 Christmas season, Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders flew the Apollo 8 command module from the Earth, to the Moon and back (launched December 21st, achieved 10 lunar orbits, landed December 27th). The Apollo 8 mission's impressive list of firsts includes; the first manned flight using the Saturn V rocket, the first humans to journey to the Earth's Moon, and the first to photograph Earth from deep space. The famous picture above, showing Earth rising above the Moon's limb as seen from lunar orbit, was a marvelous gift to the world. This was astronaut James Lovell's third mission. His last flight would be as commander of Apollo 13."

[usnatarchives]

Promo photo for Jazz at the Philharmonic Concert in Paris 1957, NARA ID 20012478.

#OTD 1934: Ella Fitzgerald Debuts at Amateur Night at the Apollo! First Lady of Song AND Civil Rights activist By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs

On the evening of November 21, 1934, 17 year-old Ella Fitzgerald took the stage on Amateur Night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater and launched her longtime career as the “First Lady of Song.” She sang for presidents, was the first Black woman to win a Grammy (she won 13 Grammy awards) and sold over 40 million albums. 

She was also a Civil Rights activist who used her talent to break racial barriers. In recognition of her work she was awarded the NAACP Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award. The National Archives holds records documenting the discrimination she faced -- and fought.

Ella Fitzgerald et al v. Pan Am: Racism or “honest mistake”? On tour in 1954 en route to a concert in Australia she was denied the right to board a Pan American flight. She had to spend three days in Hawaii before other transportation to Australia could be secured, and she missed her concert dates.

She sued Pan Am, claiming racism and seeking financial compensation. Pan Am claimed it was “an honest mistake” due to a reservation mix-up. The district judge dismissed the complaint, but the plaintiffs appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed that decision, ruling in favor of the plaintiffs.

New York Times, 12/31/1954.

Complaint, Ella Fitzgerald, John Lewis, Georgiana Henry, and Norman Granz v. Pan American, Inc., 12/23/1954 Records of U.S. District Courts NARA ID 2641486.

Ella Fitzgerald Performs at Birthday Salute to JFK at Madison Square Garden 5/19/1962, JFK Library ID ST-212-15-62.

President Gerald R. Ford and First Lady Betty Ford with Ella Fitzgerald at White House Bicentennial concert 6/20/1976, Ford Library, NARA ID 7840021.

Ella Fitzgerald Performs at the White House State Dinner for King Juan Carlos I of Spain, 10/13/1981, Reagan Library, NARA ID 75855955.

More online:

See the complaint in the Documented Rights online exhibit under “Challenging Discrimination.”

DocsTeach: Complaint in the Case of Fitzgerald v. Pan American Airways, 12/23/1954

DocsTeach: Judgment in the Case of Fitzgerald v. Pan American World Airways, 1/26/1956.

Hear Fitzgerald discuss this incident, the lawsuit, and her legal victory: Ella Fitzgerald kicked off a plane because of her race: CBC Archives.

[rabbitcruiser]

Apollo 13 was launched on April 11, 1970.

[lonestarflight]

The original Moon landing sites

"NASA contracted to have 15 flight-worthy Saturn V rockets produced. Apollo 11 achieved the first landing with the sixth Saturn V, leaving nine for follow-on landings. The following landing sites were chosen for these missions, planned to occur at intervals of approximately four months through July 1972."

Note: I've updated this list with the original tentative planned launch dates.

G-type Mission

Apollo 11: (G) Mare Tranquillitatis, July 1969

H-type missions

Apollo 12: (H1) Ocean of Storms (Surveyor 3 site), November 1969

Apollo 13: (H2) Fra Mauro Highlands, March 1970

Apollo 14: (H3) Littrow Crater, July 1970

Apollo 15: (H4) Censorinus Crater, November 1970

J-type missions, the extended stay missions

Apollo 16: (J1) Descartes Highlands or Tycho Crater (Surveyor 7 site), April 1971

Apollo 17: (J2) Marius Hills or Marius Hills volcanic domes, September 1971

Apollo 18: (J3) Copernicus crater or Schröter's Valley or Gassendi crater, February 1972, later July 1973

Apollo 19: (J4) Hadley Rille, July 1972, later December 1973

Apollo 20: (J5) Tycho Crater or Copernicus Crater or Marius Hills, December 1972, later July 1974

As we all know, plans were changed and missions were cancelled. But it's nice to see what was initially planned.

To compare with the actual landing sites and dates:

Apollo 12: (H1) Ocean of Storms (Surveyor 3 site), November 1969

Apollo 13: (H2) never landed, April 1970

Apollo 14: (H3) Fra Mauro, January-February 1971

Apollo 15: (J1) Hadley–Apennine, July-August 1971

Apollo 16: (J2) Descartes Highlands, April 1972

Apollo 17: (J3) Taurus–Littrow, December 1972

NASA ID: link, link

Information from Astronautix: link

Information from Wikipedia: link

[retropopcult]

The Apollo 13 crew, April 10, 1970.  Fred Haise (left), Jack Swigert, and Jim Lovell pose on the day before launch. Swigert had just replaced Ken Mattingly as the Command Module Pilot after Mattingly was exposed to German Measles. 

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Fly Me to the Moon

Rating: PG-13

Director: Greg Berlanti

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Woody Harrelson, Jim Rash, Ray Romano, Nick Dillenburg, Anna Garcia, Noah Robbins, Colin Woodell, Christian Zuber, Donald Watkins, Peter Jacobson, Kyle S. Brown, Jessie Mueller, Colin Jost

Release year: 2024

Genres: romance, drama, comedy

Blurb: Sparks fly in all directions as marketing maven Kelly Jones, brought in to fix NASA's public image, wreaks havoc on Apollo 11 launch director Cole Davis' already difficult task of putting a man on the moon. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, Kelly is directed to stage a fake moon landing as backup, and the countdown truly begins.

[garden-of-thoughts-fruit-of-lips]

The witness is true

Matthew 15: 10,11

With that he called the crowd near and said to them: “Listen and get the sense of it: It is not what enters into a man’s mouth that defiles him, but it is what comes out of his mouth that defiles him.”

James 1:19

Know this, my beloved brothers: Everyone must be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger,

God said, "Let it be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens." These luminaries will serve as signs for days and years. (Genesis 1:14)

Biblically, they used a lunar calendar, which is based on the cycles of the moon. 🌙 According to the biblical calendar, a year consists of 360 days. 📅

Going off the lunar calendar, 1,260 days is equivalent to 42 months. That's exactly 3 in a half times

Why is this number of months/days important because this is how long the holy city is being trampled on underfoot, 42 months. (Revelation 11:2)

Which is also the same amount of months the wild beast opened his mouth and spoke for. (Revelation 13:5,6). Giving breath/life to the image (Revelation 13:15)

The moon is being mentioned as being beneath the feet of the woman in Rev 12:1.

Therefore, since the nations trampled the holycity underfoot for 42 months. (Revelation 11:2) This refers to the moon. Since the moon is beneath her feet. (Revelation 12:1)

Ironically, walking on the moon was a big milestone. The moon is "underfoot."

Neil Armstrong, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." 

When did this image of the moon start to speak?

Opening of the mouth = the launch of the Apollo 11 mission, which aimed to be the first humans on the moon.

Closing of the mouth = the last moon mission Apollo 17. It was the final mission of the Apollo program, and it marked the last time humans been to the moon to this day

July 16, 1969 December 19, 1972

Keep in mind the Lunar Calendar 📅 360 days a year.

A common year has 365 days. So, for most years, if your birthday was on a Friday, the following year, it will walk forward to be on a Saturday. Because of this walk back a day each year

1972 - 1969 = 3 years

December 19 walk back a day each yr = December 16

July 16, 1969 to December 16, 1972

Count the days

Green dot = Apollo 11 (first humans on the moon)

Blue dot = Apollo 17 (last time humans been to the moon)