Dear NASA,

This is a letter that will likely never be read by the minds who have spent years toiling over every possible mathematical calculation to bring us together for ten straight days for an event of this dimension.

It is also a letter for our real-life Fantastic 4. It’s been a little over a week since they returned home safely, and for those of us who stayed on the ground, that was what we primarily asked for, prayed for, and yearned for.

This is a letter also for those little people who, like yours truly, witnessed the event—whether through livestreams, CNN, social media threads, a couple of memes, viral moments, etc. Regardless if you had total faith in the mission or even if you found yourself verging on skepticism at some point...

Looking at the images broadcasted live on the day of the launch, no matter where you stood, I truly believe that for a fleeting moment we all tuned in and felt like we were boarding that ship as one. Feeling the whole world within ourselves.

Because since the possibility exists to lift a rocket with the tonnage of I don't know how many ocean liners, and to do it without anything going wrong... in no way can you deny how natural it feels what must be the epitome of what we came here to do:

To exist with blind, unwavering faith.

For one brief moment, it is easy to trust that despite the black holes awaiting us in our daily lives... nothing is impossible. Despite the obstacles, despite all the hard work.

So, and only then, what pretexts do we have for everything else? They run out, but what about the thousand and one previous excuses?

They sucked the life out of your confidence, now how do we get it moving again? You have to let it be so it keeps going on its own...

Whatever it is you’re thinking of conquering, whatever you’ve been procrastinating for years or perhaps decades...

Think about a single one of those minds and ask yourself if they procrastinated the calculations they had to deliver. Think about whether they threw their papers in the trash when the numbers wouldn't yield.

They probably did crumple them up and aim for the wastebasket... and then they started all over again.

Clean page. A page at zero. The whole equation, from the top...

Because if one refuses to do their job, then the calling she sends our way would be lost in a mere echo...

Thank you for the rovers that are still up there even though we don't see them. Thank you for Project Mercury and the steps of steel, the famous successes.

Thank you also for the failed tests, for continuing to honor the names and lives of those crew heroes who did not return home. They earned every medal, all the way to heaven.

For making art and science look each other in the eye and not argue. On the contrary, they love each other in secret and you guys reveal their fling.

Thank you for Challenger, for Columbia, and all those expeditions that aren't always announced.

Thank you for Apollo and its many facets. And double thanks for the sister mission, our unforgettable Artemis. For aiming higher and taking the shot without knowing if the arrows would land.

For showing us that when humans want to, we can do things from another planet. For making us feel that the human footprint can indeed be felt from the outside as if it were from another planet. 

Dear Reid, Victor, and Jeremy, thank you for representing the best of man in quite foreign and distant lands. For your bravery and for the sensitivity you never sacrificed for the sake of one or the other. Because a man doesn't have to choose just one, rather wear both on the surface of his skin rather than with broken skin.

Dear Christina, there are no words to describe how much every woman saw herself in your steps. As a daughter of Mother Gaea, you saw her head-on with the eyes of all women. Besides, the moon is ours and ours alone; among its echoes, many of us ask for it as a gift, but you went to her because you wanted to see her unfolded, within your fingertips' reach, getting to “touch” beyond what she has always shown us.

The four of you are unique and it was destined that humanity would go with you on your shoulders and that you guys would take us out of the atmosphere. Thank you for making us fly and sharing the feeling that we can glide past the stratosphere.

Thank you for setting the bar very high and also for showing us that love can be a crater written on the skin of our beautiful nightly witness.

Every night will bring this memory back to us, even if her presence in our skies is ephemeral and taciturn.

As I said above: “if any of you guys would have refused to do your job, then the never-ending call she’s made to us, would have gone unanswered...”

Dear NASA, infinite thanks for inviting us to dream. Over and over again.

— yours truly, V.

P.S. Have you thought of writing them a letter? I’ll leave you with this link:

Thank You, Artemis IIA global wall of gratitude for Artemis II.

thankyouartemis.com