UTA students cheer Artemis II launch as new era of lunar exploration begins

Inside the University of Texas at Arlington planetarium, students and space enthusiasts gathered to witness the next chapter in lunar exploration. They watched as Artemis II soared into space.

"To see this go off almost to a T was incredible," planetarium coordinator McKenna Dowd said.

Future engineers inspired by Artemis

"It was honestly really surreal," student Michael Benton said. "I was just excited to be there. It was living history."

"I like had chills in my body, I can't lie," Nelda Hernandez said. "It's been such an effort to get here, so I was not completely emotional, but I was super excited that it actually happened. This is the furthest we've gone in 54 years."

Hernandez is a fourth-year aerospace engineering student who hopes to one day work in space exploration.

"I'd love to work on motion systems, that's a really innovative technology going on," she said. "To be able to relate to some of the terms that I had heard in class, and it was actually going on in the launch, was super sick."

Over the next 10 days, she'll be watching closely.

"When they reach the far side of the moon, they're going to lose contact with Earth for 40 minutes, so it's probably going to be a very nerve-racking moment," she said.

"We're living through history right now," Dowd said. "Not only are we sending astronauts back to the lunar environment, but this is for the future of our place in space – learning more about ourselves and our solar system, the moon. Furthering scientific advancements."

Looking ahead to future missions

Hernandez says NASA is now one step closer to one day putting astronauts back on the moon, and she's eager to be a part of what comes next.

"It's just super cool that I'm alive right now and get to experience this," she said.