Houston's own Mayor Sylvester Turner rolled out the red carpet for space heroes at City Hall this Tuesday. In a move fitting for 'Space City', Turner hosted a meet-and-greet with NASA's bigwig Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa E. Wyche and the crew of Artemis II. The astronaut quartet, gearing up for a lunar orbit in late 2024, includes Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Hammock Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
The buzz-worthy event had the astronauts rubbing elbows with council members, city staffers, and a bunch of kids who got a kick out of it. Artemis II, as NASA's posted on their site, will be a roughly 10-day joyride around the moon, testing out all the bells and whistles of their Space Launch System rocket and proving that the Orion spacecraft can keep humans breathing easy in the void beyond.
"This was a fun and important event. We appreciated the astronauts being here and taking the time to explain the mission to our city employees," said Mayor Turner, according to the City of Houston press release. He added that Houston is all-in when it comes to space exploration, reflecting on how the city's fate and the space program's success are intertwined.
Turner wasn't shy about blowing the city's trumpet, calling the astronauts "pioneers representing the aspirations of humanity," in a nod to their ambitious moon-bound journey. Fresh from their White House rendezvous with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris last week, the Artemis II team hit up City Hall as a hat tip for the support—part of their charm offensive to get public hearts racing about space, as per the City of Houston.
The crew didn't just yammer about mission details. They also dished on the personal keepsakes they plan to shuttle to space. A heap of questions from the audience got answers, and the astronauts didn't dodge photo ops with the eager attendees. To cap it off, Turner forked over some City of Houston swag—belt buckles and medallions. In return, Director Wyche dished out a framed cosmic snapshot of Houston from a space-eye view.
