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As an American I feel like I've been going through a bit of an identity crisis from what I remember growing up. Probably the rose tinted glasses of being a chi

As an American I feel like I've been going through a bit of an identity crisis from what I remember growing up. Probably the rose tinted glasses of being a child but being from Florida I always had a sense of amazement and wonder as I heard the sonic boom of the shuttle returning to earth. Really felt like I was coexisting in this incredible scientific powerhouse of a country full of bright and enabled peoples that knew how to prioritize curiosity and innovation. Feeling like a bit of a "vibe" post which is everything wrong lately but I can't help but feel some satisfaction that we're still able to accomplish something like this in our space endeavors.

llbbdd 6mo ago
I think especially online there's a lot of emphasis on "everything is wrong". A mission like this is hard to ignore and highlights the bias. On the whole, despite setbacks, we continue.
- bombcar 6mo ago
  There's a lot of money/hay/political power/etc to be made from "everything is wrong" - it's hard for "good news" to really get into your bones. Not to say it's the best of times, nor to say it's the worst of times, mind you. Just that it's really hard to objectively compare.
  - SV_BubbleTime 6mo ago
    Objectively never a better point in history, subjectively never more people miserable and misled. Wild stuff really. There is a book about it, using an Abe Lincoln quote he said hoping that the civil war wouldn’t happen, “better angels of our nature”.
- simplyluke 6mo ago
  If you want to dispel a bit more of the ever-pervasive online pessimism bias, read up on global rates of hunger the last time we flew to the moon (1972) vs now. The reality is, for all the problems we face today, there's no sane answer other than today to the question "when would you prefer to be born as a random person on earth"
  - hkpack 6mo ago
    It is about trends and perceptions - 70s were very hopeful, now with global problems - wars, climate, AI, uncertainty, what is growing is desperation. I definitely don’t envy kids that are born nowadays.
    - SoftTalker 6mo ago
      The '70s were not hopeful. Economy was terrible, Vietnam ended but still hung over the culture, Watergate, Three Mile Island, Iranian hostage crisis, cold war threatening to turn hot at any moment, double-digit mortgage rates.... and Disco.
      - dakolli 6mo ago
        Have you checked the news recently?
      - __patchbit__ 6mo ago
        The Father of Disco was involved in the song "Electric Dreams" associated with a film about AI in a love triangle.
      - tedd4u 6mo ago
        Definitely not the 70's. I think the most recent age that might have counted as hopeful was really between the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) through the beginning of the GWOT (9/11/2001). So basically the 90's.
        adrian_b 6mo ago
        The seventies were a more representative time for technological hopes, during a time when it was not yet clear which are the right technological choices. The nineties were a time of rapid technological progress, but most of it was perfectly predictable, without surprises. The only thing that was surprising during the nineties was how important the Internet became in practice, even if the evolution of its underlying technology was not surprising. The time correctly delimited by you was the time of the greatest false political hopes, when everybody around the World believed that we got rid of the communist blood-sucking parasites and now the World would become that which had been described for decades in the propaganda of the Voice of America, where the political elites are held accountable for their actions, so if they are bad they are replaced through democratic elections, and the bad commercial companies are eliminated by competition in the free market. Instead of this happening, already a couple of years before 9/11 a wave of destructuring many important historical companies happened, followed by a huge wave of mergers and acquisitions that has continued until today and which has eliminated competition from most markets, so that they are now dominated by quasi monopolies. Then the democratic elections have brought to power worse and worse human beings, all of whom have been much worse than some citizens that would have been randomly selected for those positions. Nowadays, the economies of USA and of the other "Western" countries, and also their political institutions, resemble much more those of the socialist countries that they mocked during the seventies, than those of USA and W. Europe of that time. So all the hopes of the nineties were naive and none of them was realized.
anon291 6mo ago
The nice thing about a public space program is everyone can share in its success!
dakolli 6mo ago
[flagged]
- sermah 6mo ago
  The Moon doesn’t pay money
userbinator 6mo ago
Many of those who saw the first moon landing as a child are still alive and remember what it felt like.
pjc50 6mo ago
From one of the ground staff for Artemis: https://bsky.app/profile/captnamy.bsky.social/post/3mi36brfwj22q https://bsky.app/profile/captnamy.bsky.social/post/3mi36brfw... "1968 and the country was on fire. Vietnam. Assassinations. Civil unrest. Protests. Apollo 8 was the one bright event of a terrible year. 2026 and the country is on fire. Iran. Corruption. Fascists. Civil unrest. No Kings. I hope Artemis II will stand out as a bright spot for our country." Some more background on her: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2026/04/01/chicagoan-amy-lendian-artemis-ii-launch-nasa-moon-mission https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2026/04/01/chicagoan-amy-l...
- brianjlogan 6mo ago
  Oh I didn't realize that was the same year! That was indeed quite a year. The Rest is History podcast on it was quite good.
philipallstar 6mo ago
> Feeling like a bit of a "vibe" post which is everything wrong lately but I can't help but feel some satisfaction that we're still able to accomplish something like this in our space endeavors. SpaceX catching with chopsticks and doing booster catches has already done that for me. Crazy advances.
- brynnbee 6mo ago
  I watched a starship launch live, in-person, and had the experience of driving up to the launch complex the night before and car camping right outside of it and looking out my car window in the middle of the night and seeing a massive rocket lit up with spotlights. It was the most "I live in the future" experience of my entire life. I can't wait to go back and see a chopsticks catch live.

llbbdd 6mo ago

I think especially online there's a lot of emphasis on "everything is wrong". A mission like this is hard to ignore and highlights the bias. On the whole, despite setbacks, we continue.

bombcar 6mo ago
There's a lot of money/hay/political power/etc to be made from "everything is wrong" - it's hard for "good news" to really get into your bones. Not to say it's the best of times, nor to say it's the worst of times, mind you. Just that it's really hard to objectively compare.
- SV_BubbleTime 6mo ago
  Objectively never a better point in history, subjectively never more people miserable and misled. Wild stuff really. There is a book about it, using an Abe Lincoln quote he said hoping that the civil war wouldn’t happen, “better angels of our nature”.
simplyluke 6mo ago
If you want to dispel a bit more of the ever-pervasive online pessimism bias, read up on global rates of hunger the last time we flew to the moon (1972) vs now. The reality is, for all the problems we face today, there's no sane answer other than today to the question "when would you prefer to be born as a random person on earth"
- hkpack 6mo ago
  It is about trends and perceptions - 70s were very hopeful, now with global problems - wars, climate, AI, uncertainty, what is growing is desperation. I definitely don’t envy kids that are born nowadays.
  - SoftTalker 6mo ago
    The '70s were not hopeful. Economy was terrible, Vietnam ended but still hung over the culture, Watergate, Three Mile Island, Iranian hostage crisis, cold war threatening to turn hot at any moment, double-digit mortgage rates.... and Disco.
    - dakolli 6mo ago
      Have you checked the news recently?
    - __patchbit__ 6mo ago
      The Father of Disco was involved in the song "Electric Dreams" associated with a film about AI in a love triangle.
    - tedd4u 6mo ago
      Definitely not the 70's. I think the most recent age that might have counted as hopeful was really between the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) through the beginning of the GWOT (9/11/2001). So basically the 90's.
      - adrian_b 6mo ago
        The seventies were a more representative time for technological hopes, during a time when it was not yet clear which are the right technological choices. The nineties were a time of rapid technological progress, but most of it was perfectly predictable, without surprises. The only thing that was surprising during the nineties was how important the Internet became in practice, even if the evolution of its underlying technology was not surprising. The time correctly delimited by you was the time of the greatest false political hopes, when everybody around the World believed that we got rid of the communist blood-sucking parasites and now the World would become that which had been described for decades in the propaganda of the Voice of America, where the political elites are held accountable for their actions, so if they are bad they are replaced through democratic elections, and the bad commercial companies are eliminated by competition in the free market. Instead of this happening, already a couple of years before 9/11 a wave of destructuring many important historical companies happened, followed by a huge wave of mergers and acquisitions that has continued until today and which has eliminated competition from most markets, so that they are now dominated by quasi monopolies. Then the democratic elections have brought to power worse and worse human beings, all of whom have been much worse than some citizens that would have been randomly selected for those positions. Nowadays, the economies of USA and of the other "Western" countries, and also their political institutions, resemble much more those of the socialist countries that they mocked during the seventies, than those of USA and W. Europe of that time. So all the hopes of the nineties were naive and none of them was realized.

anon291 6mo ago

The nice thing about a public space program is everyone can share in its success!

dakolli 6mo ago

[flagged]

sermah 6mo ago
The Moon doesn’t pay money

userbinator 6mo ago

Many of those who saw the first moon landing as a child are still alive and remember what it felt like.

pjc50 6mo ago

From one of the ground staff for Artemis: https://bsky.app/profile/captnamy.bsky.social/post/3mi36brfwj22q https://bsky.app/profile/captnamy.bsky.social/post/3mi36brfw... "1968 and the country was on fire. Vietnam. Assassinations. Civil unrest. Protests. Apollo 8 was the one bright event of a terrible year. 2026 and the country is on fire. Iran. Corruption. Fascists. Civil unrest. No Kings. I hope Artemis II will stand out as a bright spot for our country." Some more background on her: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2026/04/01/chicagoan-amy-lendian-artemis-ii-launch-nasa-moon-mission https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2026/04/01/chicagoan-amy-l...

brianjlogan 6mo ago
Oh I didn't realize that was the same year! That was indeed quite a year. The Rest is History podcast on it was quite good.

philipallstar 6mo ago

> Feeling like a bit of a "vibe" post which is everything wrong lately but I can't help but feel some satisfaction that we're still able to accomplish something like this in our space endeavors. SpaceX catching with chopsticks and doing booster catches has already done that for me. Crazy advances.

brynnbee 6mo ago
I watched a starship launch live, in-person, and had the experience of driving up to the launch complex the night before and car camping right outside of it and looking out my car window in the middle of the night and seeing a massive rocket lit up with spotlights. It was the most "I live in the future" experience of my entire life. I can't wait to go back and see a chopsticks catch live.