The term “moon shot,” back when most rocket engines exploded (seriously), was once a slang term for something as nearly impossible as completing a Hail Mary (Project) pass in football.
As I write this, the Artemis II , far beyond the space station, is speeding around the moon with not “the usual three astronauts” —in their chairs— but with four — in a capsule the size of two minivans— and a good crew: the first woman, the first Canadian and the first “person of colour.” And one regular guy.
In my boyhood, during the first moon missions, all the airforce generals, both here and in Russia, were white males. Even though “Russia” included the “less white” Central Asian republics and Siberia. By the time I retired, America has seen Black generals, Black women generals, and a certain Black general became Secretary of State, Colin Powell. Oh, and a “Black” (Okay, half black) civilian from Hawaii became a US president. Meanwhile, over in Moscow, all the stuffed shirts are still white. Maybe the Russians are jealous of affirmative action. (Well before DEI)
As a boy, the rocket ships in my colouring books had only two markings: either USA —because on the side of a rocket it did not look as good to write “US of A” — Or else CCCP, which in English meant Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR (“Don’t know how lucky you are, boy”). By “socialist” they meant “communist,” a word adults sometimes snarled to say—but not always, not like our parents always snarled “Hitler.”
Our elementary school teachers, as our principal told us, were forbidden to explain communism lest they convert us. Years later, part of the reason the Canada-Russia hockey series made the front pages was because of the Great Question of our time: Which is better for a country, communism (with a dictator) or capitalism (with democracy)? We were merely curious, but the Third World people were desperate to know. (The mode year for new African nations was 1960) The “space race” to the moon was partly to provide a tangible answer.
I remember my grade six teacher, young Mister Macintyre, with his beatnik beard, telling us he was astonished. Everyone in my class had been born in the months after Sputnik. “I just realized! For you, there has always been a space age!”
Back then I liked reading secret agent books. There was often a scene where a communist spy, upon being captured, or while he was holding the hero at gunpoint, would say, “Our side is going to win; because the west is too soft.” (Meaning the world will become communist)
I didn’t want to believe it, but yes, I knew it was reasonable to see the west as softer. After all, even today the Russians, when their country is shrunken because republics have split off, and bereft of their satellite nations in eastern Europe, while having an economy no bigger than Italy’s, are nevertheless holding back all of Europe at the Ukraine trenches.
Partly because the European Union nations were too timid, during the first year, or years, of the “special military operation” to give a green light to munition makers to increase production. Of course no responsible company would dare to “tool up” for increased production without any government commitment to buy… This while Russian factories, from being tougher, if not from common sense, run 3 shifts in 24 hours. (most recent fact check)
A Canadian said, “No rational person believes anything the Russians (including Putin) say.” (“Quick, somebody tell the White House!”) Even children, in my day, knew the Soviets believed in “propaganda.” Instead of doling out information in ongoing little drabs as the Americans did, they would use their iron censorship to suddenly release news. Such as the shocking launch of the world’s first “artificial satellite,” Sputnik.
During boyhood, a specific piece of propaganda slipped past me: books on space would always note how the first woman in space (when I was a preschooler) was a Soviet, meaning there were other spacewomen in the “worker’s paradise” too. Because in theory, their ideology of communism meant “comrades” of all genders being equal. In reality, Russia was ruled by white male Party Members. It would be not seasons, not years, but nearly two decades (when I was a “mature student” at college) before the second Soviet female went up—who knew?
As the years rolled by, during the 1980’s a monthly science fiction magazine used to run editorials warning against Moscow trying to spread socialism to the skies: they were trying to get the US to sign a treaty that only governments could go into outer space. I knew what this meant: While it was true at the time that only the two superpowers had enough money, Moscow secretly respected capitalism enough to try to prevent any future corporations from going into space.
I have barely followed the news of the latest moon shot because NASA’s Apollo missions still feel as fresh as yesterday. Apollo came after the one man Mercury (so fast!) And the two-man Gemini missions (the twins).
I remember being surprised at coming across a colour photograph of the Lunar Lander proudly posed in a Texas landscape, looking like a glaring white, weird, space bug. And I remember the nights of the first actual moon-landing flight, Apollo 11, in the summer of 1969: I stayed home while Dad took the older kids to MacDonald’s Restaurant (before the clown ever talked) and he brought me (before metric) a 12 inch-square souvenir moon map, a map I still use when reading novels set on the moon. For the night of the actual moon landing, since we had no television set, my parents went to watch at the Royal Canadian Legion, while my kid sister and I listened to the kitchen radio.
The earth kept orbiting. At last, to quote a Church song, as so many newspapers did, one blessed day in Berlin “The wall came tumbling down.”
Right now I think: Never mind the old men in Moscow: their dictatorship had already failed before the wall failed. And never mind the characters in Washington. With all due respect to America’s elite, so rich, so smartly educated, like President Trump with his degree in economics… the public may not be the wisest, but they are the safest holders of power. Hence, reasoning “two heads are better than one,” they elect their congress critters, rather than “put all the power eggs in one basket” of an individual. Or king.
For me, the most powerful reason for Artemis II is adding a little bit of colour to my life through the romance of spaceflight. For Washington, I guess there might be a little competition going on with the communists in China.
… …
… …
Sean Crawford
On Terra Firma
(Firm land)
April,
2026
Comics in space:
~Maybe this clip was edited, to fool people who believe in social media, but still: For folks with a sense of humour—don’t watch if you believe in Fox News— here, filmed on the Artemis II, is what the astronauts did NOT say to US president Trump.
~As for a bird’s eye generational view of today’s socio-political comedy, plus a witty song (as a term paper for class) about digital life, see the “TV screen” links at the end of my blog post
That song:
“Fit” means “fought.”
I used to sing this one on long summer pathways. Here, instead of the simple version I remember, without male and female parts (I wonder which version all those newspaper reporters heard), I link instead to good people in plain clothes on stage.
