I really needed Integrity this week.
The crew of the Artemis II mission named their Orion spacecraft Integrity, and when I heard that, something in me relaxed a bit.
They described Integrity as the foundation of trust, respect, candor, and humility that binds them.
I have been turning that word, Integrity, over all week like a stone in my hand, perhaps because I missed hearing it spoken as a positive trait…or even at all.
And then there is the mission name, Artemis.
In Greek mythology, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo.
She is the Goddess of the Moon, the wilderness, and the hunt.
Fierce, independent, and rooted in the wild, the patron goddess of the legendary tribe of warrior women in the Amazons, Artemis moves in community and relationship, carrying those bonds across distances that should be impossible.
Hmmm….what a powerful description of this mission for this moment.
There was integrity in every moment of Artemis’ mission to the furthest reaches of the moon and back starting with the crew members themselves.
The Diversity of Integrity
There were certainly a lot of firsts from this crew: Victor Glover was the first black man, Christina Koch became the first woman, Jeremy Hansen was the first non-U.S. citizen, and Reid Wiseman, their commander, became the oldest person to fly to the moon.
Different histories, paths, identities, and all shared one mission of Artemis.
Women held more positions in the control room than ever before: Engineers, flight controllers, mission managers speaking into headsets in the dark. Artemis’ wisdom in full display.
In a moment back on earth when DEI is verboten, Artemis leans into our unique identities together.
But it’s more than simply being the first diverse person in a space mission to the moon. It’s about the full story being carried and the commitment to transform it for good.
The Liturgy of Lament
Before every launch, Victor Glover does something that is one of the most theologically honest things I have heard of any astronaut doing.
He listens to two songs:
Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on the Moon”
Marvin Gaye’s “Make Me Wanna Holler”
Mr. Glover says these songs capture what the Apollo era did well and what it did poorly.
He lets the anger and grief move through him before he steps into history, of refusing to arrive at the future without honoring who was excluded from the past.
He calls his presence on this mission a force for good, and he is right because he carries the pain and the possibility held together, transformed by courage into something the world has never quite seen before.
That is Artemis energy. That is what it looks like to honor the threshold before you cross it.
A Bright Spot on the Moon
When the crew reached the farthest point any human beings have ever traveled from Earth, they named the importance of the moment in tender and vulnerable ways.
Jeremy Hansen radioed down to mission control, his voice thick, and told them the crew wanted to name two craters.
The first they called Integrity, after their spacecraft.
For the second, Hansen described:
“A number of years ago, we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie. It’s a bright spot on the moon. And we would like to call it Carroll.”
I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Carroll Taylor Wiseman tended the most fragile lives at the threshold of living. When she first got sick, Reid wanted to leave Houston. She told him no. “This is where you work and you love your job. We should not give that up for this.”
She gave him back to his calling while she was dying.
The cameras caught Reid bowing his head as Hansen spoke. Christina Koch wiping her eyes.
Four people holding one another in the cabin of Integrity, grief and courage occupying exactly the same space.
Artemis, goddess of the Moon and protector of the vulnerable, would know exactly who Carroll and this crew was.
What Integrity Asks of Us
My friends, we are living inside a moment that is working very hard to convince us that cruelty is strength, going it alone is wisdom, and that some people’s belonging in this world is negotiable.
The Artemis II mission answered all of that without a single argument.
It sent:
A Black man who sits with songs of lament before he flies into history.
A woman who broke every record and then broke orbit.
A Canadian who reminded the world that this reaches beyond any one nation’s story.
A single father who named his spacecraft, Integrity, and a crater, Carroll, and wept without apology at the farthest edge of human reach.
And it held all of them in the hands of a room full of women.
We can do extraordinary things when we honor our unique identities and go together.
We can reach the dark side of the Moon.
We can carry our grief into the deep and find that it does not break us, that it is, in fact, part of what keeps us whole.
We can name the bright spots and mean it.
Integrity is what carries us. Artemis Energy honors our unique strengths for the journey into the wild together.
Let us channel our Artemis Energy with Integrity into the great unknown!
