Hello and welcome to the supermassive podcast from the Royal Astronomical Society with me,

science journalist Izzy Clark and a slightly different line-up of the deputy director of the

Royal Astronomical Society, Dr Robert Massey, and producer and editor Richard Hollingham.

We did have a different bonus episode planned, but actually we're so in awe

of the Artemis II mission that we've jumped on a recording to just have a bit of a communal debrief.

Yeah, we absolutely have. I mean, who, come on, who wasn't blown away about that launch and by

splashdown and everything that took place in between all these amazing pictures.

You know, the fact the crew were just so excited and sending this stuff back, it's really

compelling. You know, it's been, what, 54 years since the last Apollo missions.

It's anyone on anywhere near the moon. And there we are. And we're all excited like a bunch

of kids, I guess. I was at the launch, and the experience was overwhelming.

You'll hear how I struggled to articulate my thoughts, because it was just a complete sensory overload.

And knowing that on top of this giant rocket were, as Robert said, for remarkable human beings. And Robert, before we go any further, you're now a good chum of Reid Wiseman, the commander, aren't you? Yeah, yeah, I'm kind of playing that down slightly. It's true we've exchanged emails, which is nice. And I sent him a picture of the sun last week, knowing he wasn't going to pick it up until he got back,

because the sun had very few sunspots on it, which is a good thing, because it means it was much less like he had a solar flare, much less like you had to have to genuinely rather than test the radiation shelter, which apparently involves climbing into cupboards, clearing out all the stuff in the cupboards and hiding in the cupboards while the storm happens. So that was not going to...

But that said, Richard, you know,

I may have emails some Reid Wiseman,

but, you know, I may have emails some Reid Wiseman, but, you know,

I feel the Ryan Gosling jealousy really that Izzy was feeling with Becky because, you know,

you got to be at the launch. Becky gets to meet Ryan Gosling, you know, Izzy does lots of

glamorous stuff.

Izzy needs to pick up on the glamorous stuff. I'm sorry. I am absolutely falling behind everyone else. Richard was at the launch. You were on BBC News. I was sat in my pyjamas in my living room like, well, this is fun. And then you pop up on my TV. Like, oh, okay. We've got slightly different plans for the launch of Artemis too. Yeah, I mean, I was at home, I stress, and I was up till what, like 2.30 in the morning, our time. So, yeah, I hung in there, basically. It was nice to see people like John Amos again, who's covered it so long, you know, he's effectively coming out retirement to do this this and pretty much the perfect guest, I think.

And astronauts on the live feed from Florida as well.

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