For this month's installment of Transparency Corner, we’re talking space. I’m Brendan Byrne, assistant news director here at Central Florida Public Media. I also have covered the space beat for more than a decade. When the Artemis II mission lifted off April 1 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, all eyes were eastward as the Orion capsule carried its crew of four on a moonbound mission that for more than nine days captivated the public. For me, it book-ended a story I had been following for Central Florida Public Media for more than 11 years.
The Orion spacecraft, which took NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian space agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on its record-setting trip around the moon and back, first took its maiden voyage – without a crew – on December 5, 2014. The mission called Exploration Flight Test-1 took the crew module of Orion on a roughly four-hour trip as a tech demonstration. The lessons learned from this mission went into the development of Orion, and the successful return of the Artemis II crew.
As a young producer at what was WMFE, I was sent out to Space View Park in Titusville to cover the launch attempt. It was the first space story I would ever cover. Standing along the pier, I spoke with space enthusiasts about why they were out there so darn early (the launch attempt was 7:05 a.m.). The many I talked to said they were there to witness history – and see NASA take its next step to the moon, and eventually send humans to Mars.
It was the first chapter of NASA’s new lunar ambitions, and for us at Central Florida Public Media, it launched a new era of space coverage.
We quickly realized our audience wanted more space coverage. Since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, there weren’t many marquee stories to tell along the Space Coast. But Orion’s first flight lit a spark in our newsroom .
Shortly after that flight, I became the de facto space reporter – my only qualification was a short stint at Space Camp in the 5th grade. As we began reporting more and more stories from the space beat, like the growing private space sector that included visits from SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos, we saw there was a growing appetite for stories like these. It led to the creation of our podcast Are We There Yet? in 2016, which, since then, has clocked over 500 episodes in its decade-long run.
And at the heart of our coverage was Orion.
In fact, one of the first stories I ever reported for NPR was on the Orion space capsule. Episode two of the podcast covered the assembly of the capsule ahead of the Artemis I mission. Years later, the podcast would head back to that same facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to meet the Artemis II capsule – and its crew. And there were countless stories and episodes in between.
The Artemis II mission captivated the audience in a way we did not see coming. As someone who has been covering space for more than 12 years, the Artemis II mission was always something on the horizon, and delays were a majority of the focus of my coverage for NASA’s Artemis program as a whole. What made this launch attempt any different?
But as the countdown clock reached closer to zero on April 1, 2026, I could see that Artemis II was bringing something special to our audience – and beyond.
The flight of Artemis II captivated a nation. The crew’s poignant words on a new perspective on Earth were shared in news broadcasts, social media posts, and even at my local bar. The images of Earth from the moon – a view not seen by humans since 1972 – took the collective breath away from us all here on the planet. All over social media, people shared an emotional tear when the crew announced the naming of a crater on the moon Carroll, after the late wife of commander Reid Wiseman. And we held our breath waiting for Orion’s parachutes to open, safely returning them home.
Artemis II brought to us a shared sense of wonder, discovery, adventure, understanding and place in the universe. To see so many people – even those who don’t pay much attention to space news – captivated by this mission was an incredible sight to see.
I see these things in many of the stories we cover on the space beat. Space exploration pushes our understanding of who we are and what we are capable of doing as human beings.
For example, we’ve covered the discovery of exoplanets extensively on Are We There Yet?. Exoplanets are planets outside our solar system that, until recently, were only hypothesized. The findings are changing how scientists think about our own solar systems, and whether or not we may be the only planet harboring life.
We’ve brought the curiosity of our youngest space enthusiasts to Veteran NASA astronaut Winston Scott in our segment called Curious Space. Scott answers questions kids have about space – from what astronauts eat to how they use the bathroom. It’s our thought that kids ask the best questions, so they deserve their own segment.
Our coverage also highlights challenges the space industry faces, including making space more accessible to people and diversifying the people in the workforce. While the Artemis II mission carried the first woman, the first person of color, and the first Canadian astronaut to the moon, our reporting has found that there is still much work to be done in making space more inclusive.
As humans, we are explorers, and we long for an understanding of who we are, how our planet formed, and whether or not we are alone in this universe. The Artemis II mission will help us answer those questions. The images of our planet – fragile like a glass marble on the darkest of black backdrops – gave us a new perspective of spaceship Earth amidst the vast cosmos. The geological observations of the lunar surface will help us understand our closest celestial neighbor and where it came from, and in turn, explain the origins of our own planet.
Artemis II achieved nearly all its set objectives as a test flight (except for a busted toilet). What lessons are learned from this mission will go into the following Artemis missions, including one scheduled for 2028 that will return humans to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years.
NASA’s administrator Jared Isaacman is calling this moment the “Golden Age of Space Exploration.” He has charged his agency with launching an Artemis mission once a year. He wants dozens of payload missions sent to the moon. And he’s calling for the creation of a lunar base to host astronauts for weeks at a time, conducting science from the moon much like we do now on the International Space Station.
Most of those missions will launch from here. Central Florida Public Media will be there to report on them.
Only time will tell if Isaacman and NASA can pull off such an ambitious vision for our lunar future. But right now, he has the public’s support. The Trump administration called for yet another cut to NASA’s budget. But a key lawmaker has rejected that proposal and seeks to fund NASA fully, a sign of support for Isaacman and his mission.
The Artemis II mission was a giant step in a new direction for NASA, one that is taking the leap beyond low-Earth orbit and venturing, once again, to places we’ve never been before. Artemis IV could take humans to the lunar South Pole, a mysterious region of the moon full of intrigue. It’s also a dangerous environment for astronauts with temperature swings that dip as low as -334°F.
Those astronauts who venture there, possibly as soon as 2028, will take us along for the journey as humanity roots them on, exploring places we’ve never been to before.
My space coverage began in 2014 with a need and desire from our audience. In this post-Artemis II moment, that desire is re-ignited. It’s our job as a news organization with a podcast that covers space to meet this moment. And we intend to do that by continuing our coverage of space on all of our platforms, with a focus on capturing the curiosity, wonder and awe of it all that the Artemis II crew brought to us.
While Artemis II’s success may have book-ended one part of my reporting career, what happens next will be the next chapter in chronicling this history. I’m excited to tell this story. And I’m incredibly gracious that you, the audience, trusts me with this task.
As it is commonly said in the space world as we embark on a new journey, I’ll end with this phrase: Ad astra, which means “to the stars.”
And to the stars, we’ll tell that story.
