April 13, 2026
Like you, I’m just enthralled right now in the unbelievable human feat of NASA’s Artemis II, blasting through our atmosphere, circumnavigating our moon into deep space, dangerously dropping down through the earth’s atmosphere in a ball of fire and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10th at 8:07 PM EST. The world breathed a sigh of relief to see the Orion spacecraft and its full crew exit and be taken to safety in good condition. Welcome home and well done!
Photo Credit: NASA Bill Ingalls
I confess that despite being a lover of NASA and space travel, I almost couldn’t look at the coverage of their live progress or the lovely in-depth character profiles of the astronauts circulating the internet while they were still in space. I was terrified I’d become attached.
Remember the Challenger?
Like many people in their 40s, I was among the children in 1986 watching from our classrooms that day as the space shuttle exploded before our young eyes on live TV. We lost our favorite teacher astronaut Christa McAuliffe and six other astronaut crew members from the Challenger Space Shuttle . My elementary school, like many, had spent weeks prior to the launch learning about space, the solar system, space travel, and the crew of the Challenger. For many of the 5- and 6-year-olds in my class, I imagine this was our first experience with tragedy and death. I was utterly devastated. The TV was turned off and no one talked. Then we were asked to move on with our day as normal. I remember asking my six-year-old self, “Wait, didn’t they die? Did the teacher die?” No one talked about it. My nervous system didn’t forget.
Photo Credit: Susan Melendez Doak
A few years ago, I visited NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and spent time in the Forever Remembered Attraction, a memorial to the lost crews of the Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttles. I approached the window with Mrs. McAuliffe’s official photo in her blue NASA jumpsuit and felt the emotions of 6-year-old me rise to the surface in tears. On the wall was a photo of artwork made by a child that said “we will remember” with a drawing of the seven astronauts of the Challenger. It felt important to honor her memory in that space and to remember those who have courageously risked their lives to pursue human space travel. It felt good to make time in a busy tourist experience to be quiet and honor their memories. My scared child self could finally find comfort 37 years later.
Courage in the face of fear: Lessons from Artemis II
Photo Credit: Artemis II Crew
I am certain that the crew of Artemis II has intimate knowledge of what happened to the Challenger that day on January 26th, 1986. For years, they and the NASA generation before them have studied everything that went wrong on that mission and on the Columbia Mission to make sure a tragedy like that never occurs again.
The crew of Artemis II has the most reasons to be terrified. The sheer brainpower of those four individuals could likely come up with every worst-case scenario imaginable. As I watched interviews with them, there was something I noticed about them, however, that felt like a breath of fresh air. They embodied courage. They were grounded, humble, and unbelievably prepared.
Courage in the therapy room
As a trauma therapist, I have walked beside people in the darkest and scariest places of their mental and emotional health—fear, grief, anger, and isolation that are truly terrifying. I have also had the honor to witness and re-live the most surprising moments of victory with my clients. The moment they drive again for the first time after a car accident or the moment they speak to the father they have been estranged from for 20 years and find tenderness. The moment they get through their child’s death anniversary and can still be awake in the world. The moment they tell me they are 1-year-sober from drugs and alcohol.
My therapy office is where we remember and celebrate “splash down moments” of courage. I get to be the crew that meets them in the water, we meet eyes and smile. I say to them, “Look what you just did! Well done! You are incredible.” The untrained eye may not have noticed that sometimes the most ordinary moment is monumental to them. I notice. And I get to know the story—the fear, the preparation, and the victory. I will never get tired of these moments.
What we can learn
Since we are basking in the glow of the splash down, what can we take away from the Artemis II crew and the ordinary people who embody courage in my counseling office?
- Fear Is Always Along for the Ride
Nelson Mandela said, “I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it…” Fear will always be present when we are doing something difficult. To have courage in the face of a challenge means that you are afraid, but you do it anyways. There are ways to manage fear through teamwork and preparation, but we won’t be able to eliminate fear. That’s normal.
- Preparation Matters: Body, Mind, and Spirit
Much of what we do in therapy is prepare for challenges by practicing mental flexibility and by setting the stage for success through healthy habits and a growth mindset. It’s much like the years of training astronauts go through to overcome fears, to learn needed skills for the tasks at hand, and to test themselves in big and small ways. They train their physical bodies to undergo intense stress. They learn from mistakes, grapple with hard feedback, and keep showing up. We can do the same in our lives. It is often the small courageous actions we take in an ordinary day that make the difference.
- Your Crew Is Life
Ask an Olympic gold-medal athlete how they were able to accomplish their victory, and they will tell you about their “crew”. There may be one medal, but behind the scenes, there are coaches, parents, mentors, and team members that have formed a long-term support system to get them to the finish line.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t have a full dream team of support in your life. Start to make one now. Your team might include your chemo nurse, your dog, your cleaning service, your goofy co-worker, or the barista who knows your name and your order. You might have to seek out some new friendships and might find a kindred spirit online. Wherever you find them, surround yourself with humble people who understand fear, but do it anyways. Did you know that your crew includes courageous human from the past?
- Courage Is a Legacy: You Stand on the Shoulders of Those Who Have Gone Before You
I have a sculpture in my therapy office from Tanzania called an Ojamaa—a single piece of ebony wood carved representing families, tribes, and community individuals standing and stacked on top of one another in a column to represent our dependence and connection to others. We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us—our ancestors, mentors, teachers, and those we never knew that paved the way for us. The Artemis II crew keeps bringing up how they hope children will see them in the future as those who stepped out in courage to make a legacy for our kids to stand on in the future. Is there a story in your deep past of the courage of those who went before you?
- Joy and Grief Can Coexist
If you have experienced a major loss, you know how painful a celebration can be. Commander Reid Wiseman of the Artemis II crew embodied simultaneous joy and grief when he and his crew members decided to name a newly explored crater after his late wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman, a mother and NICU nurse who died in 2020 after a 5-year battle with cancer (watch the video here). In fact, the idea came from his three crew members to honor Carroll’s memory. Commander Wiseman: “And we all pretty much broke down right there. That was kind of the pinnacle moment of the mission for me. That was, I think, where the four of us were the most forged, the most bonded. And we came out focused on the day ahead.” Joy and grief have always co-existed in the human experience because to love is to grieve. To grieve with your crew is new life and the recipe for courage to do more scary things.
Photo Credit: Artemis II Crew, NASA
Take Heart!
So, dear humans, take heart. You can make it to the other side, through the fiery atmosphere, violently splashing down into the waters where we somehow emerge in one piece—relieved, exhausted, and overjoyed. That, my friends, is courage.
Thank you note: To the crew of the Artemis II mission: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Hammock Koch, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen. To those on the ground at NASA that turn dreams into reality. Look what you just did! Well done! You are incredible. Thank you for showing us what courage looks like.
The Artemis II photos featured in this article are published by NASA and considered public domain. Other photos were taken by the author.