Day: April 8, 2026

Earthrise, 2026 — Still Not Flat, Still Very Real

/ John Wagenvoort / Leave a comment

Well… there it is.

After all the waiting, all the quiet coasting through deep space, Artemis has delivered.

A new Earthrise.

And just like in 1968, it doesn’t shout.

It doesn’t argue.

It simply… shows.

The images

Then, the Moon, backlit. A perfect dark sphere with sunlight wrapping around its edge. Orion sitting there quietly, doing exactly what it was designed to do.

What you’re actually looking at

These aren’t just pretty pictures.

They represent:

  • A spacecraft that travelled hundreds of thousands of kilometres
  • A trajectory calculated so precisely it loops around the Moon and comes home
  • Systems, materials, and engineering built on decades of knowledge
  • Humans, once again, operating beyond low Earth orbit for the first time in over 50 years

No drama.

Just:

“All systems nominal.”

A gentle note to the sceptics

Now, I know… somewhere out there, someone is typing:

“It’s CGI.”

Of course it is.

Along with:

  • The Apollo Guidance Computer (which you can literally power on today)
  • The Saturn V rocket (still standing, still explainable bolt by bolt) (Hat’s off to Luke Talley)
  • The engineers — past and present — who can walk you through every system in detail
  • And now… Artemis, repeating the journey in full public view

At some point, you have to admire the scale of the “production.”

Because apparently, it’s been running flawlessly for over half a century.

The quiet power of this moment

Back in Apollo 8, astronauts didn’t set out to take the most famous photograph in history.

They just noticed something.

Earth… rising.

That same thing has happened again.

Different spacecraft. Different era.

Same reality.

Why it matters

This isn’t about proving anything to anyone.

It’s about perspective.

That small blue arc above the Moon isn’t:

  • A country
  • A border
  • A disagreement

It’s: Home

Final thought

Rockets don’t care what we believe.

Cameras don’t care either.

They just record what’s there.

And right now, what’s there is undeniable:

  • We Went Back
  • We saw it again
  • And it’s just as sensational as the first time