For a rocket launch, everything has to be right, from the correct time window to the weather, materials, and technology – especially when humanity is going to the Moon again for the first time after a 53-year break. But one thing almost threw a wrench in the Artemis II crew’s plans: the possible card luck of Commander Reid Wiseman.
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Artemis II makes history
The Artemis 2 mission not only sent humans back into lunar orbit for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, but also took them farther from Earth than ever before (406,765 km). Planning for the launch began as early as 2021, and the launch took place as scheduled on April 1, 2026, at 5:35 p.m. local time from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
The crew was selected in 2023 and consisted of four astronauts: Victor Glover (pilot), Christina Koch (mission specialist), Jeremy Hansen (mission specialist), and Commander Reid Wiseman. Glover, Koch, and Wiseman are NASA astronauts, Hansen is a CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut.
The mission goal of Artemis II was the manned test flight of the Orion spacecraft, which is also planned to be used for Artemis missions 3 through 6, which will conduct three Moon landings starting in 2028. After two Earth orbits, the spacecraft embarked on the 4-day journey to the Moon, which it orbited before returning to Earth over another 4 days.
In front of millions of viewers on screens, re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere took place after 9 days and one and a half hours. Just before that, the capsule separated from the European Service Module built in Germany, which was responsible for propulsion and supplies. The Orion capsule initially descended under two stabilizing drogue parachutes and then under three large main parachutes into the Pacific Ocean off San Diego, California, where the crew was recovered by the US Navy.
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No launch without poker!
No matter how sophisticated the technology and how tight the launch window, ultimately the launch procedure depended on a poker game. Because before every NASA launch, a ritual is followed where the mission can only proceed if the mission commander loses the hand.
This is meant to ensure that the mission leader leaves the bad luck he encounters in the card game on Earth, while luck favors him in space: bad luck in the game, good luck in the rocket!
For the superstitious pre-launch ritual, the four astronauts even had their own NASA dealer, the space-experienced astronaut Scott Tingle. In our opinion, the high-card-wins game was won in order by Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, and in the heads-up against the NASA dealer, Reid Wiseman probably lost, since we all saw how the crew subsequently flew to the Moon.
Only whether everything was fair in this game in front of live cameras, we cannot say for sure. It’s best if you watch the dealer Scott Tingle’s dexterity and the outcome of the game yourself in the video.
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The decisive poker game in the NASA video
