Artemis II viewing party at NASA Goddard Visitor Center launches big dreams – WTOP News

Americans across the country came together with fingers crossed to witness the first lunar trip in more than 50 years.

While there were thousands watching outside the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an auditorium full of space fans gathered in Greenbelt, Maryland, at the NASA Goddard Visitor Center, cheering as Artemis II lifted off for a 10-day journey through space.

“My favorite part was the launch and the stages. I liked how the parts detached from the rocket,” 10-year-old Terik Ndiaye said.

Ndiaye was joined by his 8-year-old brother, Aasim, and their mother.

Both brothers said they would love to go into space together, with Terik saying “floating” would be his favorite part, while Aasim answered “scientific discoveries.”

As the space brothers made their way to their mom’s car, inside the visitor center, sixth-grader Miabella Pineros-Leal was still exploring the exhibits.

“I always liked coming here. It’s really cool, and I like seeing the rocket launches,” Pineros-Leal said. “I really like seeing when they were launching off of Earth into space, because there’s a lot of fire.”

When asked if it was her dream to go into space, it didn’t take Pineros-Leal long to answer, “Yes, absolutely.”

As kids young and old buzzed around the visitor center with big smiles on their faces, Alex Young, the associate director for science in the Heliophysics Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said he understands their excitement.

“It’s unbelievable. I was a baby when Apollo was going, and to be here and to see this, but to also be a NASA employee and to be part of this community is just phenomenal. It’s absolutely phenomenal,” Young said.

Young, who told his fourth-grade teacher that he wanted to be an astrophysicist, said “this launch was critical.”

“This whole project, to make our step back to the moon and eventually beyond, we’ve become more and more of a spacefaring society, so this was a really key point,” Young said.

He also had advice for the students who would love to one day work for NASA and possibly head to space.

“Keep pushing,” Young advised. “It may not be a simple path, but you will get there. You may not even get to the place you think you’re going to be, but you’re going to get to something really exciting.”

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