On April 1, 2026, for the first time in more than fifty years, humans left Earth on a journey around the Moon. Families around the world stopped what they were doing to watch, many of them children, who were witnessing what was possible for maybe the first time.
Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen climbed into the Orion spacecraft and made history as the crew of Artemis II, NASA's first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. Over a roughly ten-day flight, the crew looped around the far side of the Moon and traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than any human has ever traveled, breaking a record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. It was not a landing, but a critical test flight to prove that Orion and its systems can safely carry astronauts through deep space, paving the way for future Artemis missions to return humans to the lunar surface.
Whether students watched from a classroom projector, a living room couch, or a phone under a desk they definitely weren't supposed to be on, millions of young people tuned in.
In the hours and days that followed, videos flooded the internet of kids in homemade astronaut suits, cardboard rockets taped together on living room floors, and siblings acting out their own mission control. Their imaginations were on full display as they began to realize that dreaming without limits was not so far-fetched
"Somewhere out there a kid is watching this mission who might be inspired to study science and engineering and one day be the first person to walk on another planet. That's one of the reasons why space exploration matters, and why Artemis II matters." — Senator Mark Kelly, Retired NASA Astronaut
A Mission That Belongs to Everyone
The Artemis II crew looked like the world it lifted off from. Four people, four different paths, four different stories, all heading toward the same Moon that we all look up to each night. Space, it turns out, belongs to anyone willing to reach for it.
Space exploration has always captured the human imagination, but Artemis II felt different. It felt current and close in a way that archival footage of Apollo never quite can. These were real people doing something that hadn't been done in most students' lifetimes, and that kind of immediacy has a way of connecting us all and making the impossible feel within reach.
The Spark That Changes Everything
Here is the not-so-secret secret of STEM education: kids decide early whether they are "a science kid" or "a math kid" or whether those worlds belong to someone else entirely. By middle school, a lot of those decisions are already made, often based on nothing more than a single memorable moment, good or bad. Which is why what happens between kindergarten and eighth grade matters so much. A kid who builds a rocket in third grade is a lot more likely to study engineering in tenth.
When a child watches the Orion capsule arc around the Moon, they have the chance to discover something new about themselves. They see the astronauts flying through space and see how that could be them one day, yet that new vision of themselves needs somewhere to go. Curiosity is a fast-burning fuel, and without something to build, test, or tinker with, it can fade. Hands-on learning is how a kid goes from thinking "I could do that" to actually starting down the path.
From the Stars to the Classroom
One of the coolest parts of the Artemis II Mission is that the math and science on board the Orion capsule are the same math and science showing up in classrooms right now.
The physics that launched Artemis II around the Moon is the same physics behind a water rocket climbing off a launcher in the school parking lot. The aerodynamics that shape a glider's flight path are the same forces a spacecraft has to wrestle with on the way home. Thrust, drag, energy transfer, trajectory, these are not abstract ideas reserved for NASA engineers. They are the building blocks of space exploration, and they are already showing up on homework assignments.
When students build, test, break, and rebuild, they are doing what engineers at NASA do every day. They learn that a failed prototype is information, not defeat. They learn to iterate, adjust, try again, and with practice, repetition, and resilience, they start to feel like engineers themselves.
A few Pitsco projects that connect naturally to the science behind Artemis II:
- Water Rockets Getting Started Package: Students shape nose cones and fins from plastic bottles, pump their rockets to pressure, and watch water thrust send them soaring. The result is a visceral lesson in Newton’s Third Law, air pressure, and trajectory that no simulation can match.
- Straw Rocket Launcher: Students build their own straw rockets, set the launch angle and force, and send them up to fifty feet. Every adjustment they make becomes a hands-on test of projectile motion, aerodynamics, and engineering design.
- Try This: Gravity Racer Kit: Students design and race gravity-powered cars, then tweak and retest, practicing the iterative mindset that shapes every NASA mission.
Why Christina Koch Matters for Young Girls in STEM
Before Artemis II, Christina Koch already held the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. She spent 328 days on the International Space Station in 2019 and 2020, completed six spacewalks (including the first all-female spacewalk with Jessica Meir), and logged more than 42 hours working outside the station. Before that, she earned three engineering degrees from NC State, built instruments at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and spent years doing research at the South Pole, in Greenland, and in Alaska.
When she climbed into Orion as Mission Specialist on Artemis II and became the first woman ever to fly around the Moon, it was not a symbolic pick, but instead the obvious one. That is what girls watching needed to see. A world-class engineer and astronaut, someone who showed up, did the work, and kept raising her hand for the hardest jobs. When young girls watched Christina Koch do something extraordinary, her hair in braids like their own, it became a little easier for them to picture themselves doing the same.
Teachers get to build on that. Giving young girls the opportunity to fly drones, build racecars, or walk the class through her design, these are the moments that turn inspiration into action.
The Long Arc of Inspiration
The students watching Artemis II today are the engineers, scientists, and astronauts of 2045. Some of them will design the spacecraft that carries humans to Mars. Some will build the life support systems, model the orbital paths, and figure out the materials problems that nobody has solved yet.
None of that starts in a university lab. It starts much earlier, in living rooms and backyards, in imaginations sparked by a launch on TV, and in classrooms where a teacher hands a student a kit, a project, a problem, and says "try to figure this out."
Artemis II is a reminder of what can happen when curiosity is encouraged early, taken seriously, and given room to grow. The Moon has been there the whole time. Mars will be too. Students just need someone to hand them the tools and tell them to start building.
Want to bring that kind of hands-on discovery into your classroom? Explore Pitsco's STEM solutions and help your students see, and reach, what's possible.