Look up on any clear night, and you’ll see it: The Moon.
It’s a glowing orb in the sky that unites everyone on Earth. It’s there for you to see every evening, regardless of who you are or where you come from. But it’s so far away. That duality is why humans have spun stories about it for millennia. It’s in myth and music, art and film. It dictates our time, tides, and many traditions. Setting foot on the moon again is a longtime dream that’s now closer to reality.
NASA’s Artemis II mission, the next crewed lunar flight, is preparing to launch as early as February 6, 2026, with additional windows into March and April. This mission won’t land on the moon’s surface, but it will carry four astronauts around the moon, marking the first human journey of its kind in more than half a century. Their ten-day journey will help map out the next American lunar landing.
And because the Senate stood up to the White House to reject proposed science cuts that would have devastated NASA, it appears the space program will continue to pursue dreams inspired by the moon. The new budget proposal would save about 40 future missions.
It makes you wonder why U.S. lawmakers from across the aisle, who are often afraid to challenge the White House, took a stand. It’s partly because the moon remains such an available but enigmatic figure in our lives. Movies hold the wonder in place by showing us the first steps on its surface, the physics of low gravity, and the Earth hovering overhead.
Landing on the Moon may have dispelled some myths, but it didn’t dispel the mystery. Unlocking the unknown is what drives scientists to set foot there again — and the next several missions will give filmmakers enough creative fuel to propel them into their next stories about the moon. The math. The propulsion. The landing. The first steps. The mistakes. The next step. There’s an incredible amount to explore.
If you want to take your family on a journey to the moon, there are several films newly added to my recommendations page about the science of getting to the moon and what a future on the moon could look like.
Brendan
