Keith’s note: I was just on BBC World with Astronaut Cady Coleman. We were both asked for a final favorite impression of Artemis II. I said “the crew’s loss for words”. That resonated with me. At one point at Everest Scott Parazynski and I were practicing photo stances for his summit activities with 4 small Apollo 11 moon rocks that Scott eventually took to the summit. I held up the rocks and eclipsed the Moon – with pieces of the Moon – at the foot of Mt. Everest. No one else other than the two of us have ever done that. How do you express that instant of cosmic Zen? I have tried and it’s still incomplete. All these years later I think of that trip every day and feel a responsibility – when I can – to explain the adventure of exploration whenever I can – as incomplete as my words will always be – hopefully so as to inspire others to take up the challenge to explore and convey the value of exploration to an ever-widening audience.
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing