Nows and Forevers

Seeing Artemis II on the pad gave me Rocket Fever. OK, it doesn’t take much. I’m all about Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and I remember watching Apollo 17, Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz as a kid and, of course, the shuttle missions.

If you want to lead up to Artemis, then a great podcast series is “13 Minutes to the Moon” from the BBC. The first series celebrated the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 in 2019. The second tackled Apollo 13 in 2021. I’m listening to the third series, which came out a few months ago, on the space shuttle.

It’s got some great in-depth interviews with key players like Michael Collins (Apollo 11) and Jim Lovell (Apollo 8 and 13) before they died — both were among the most personable of the astronaut corps — as well as great audio, deep research and, for lack of a better world, dramatic flair. I thought I knew just about everything about the 1960s and 1970s space program, and “13 Minutes” taught me a thing or two.

Start with Apollo 11, go to Apollo 13. You’ll be glad you did.