Two damp squibs on Earth are eclipsed by a blast off to the dark side of the Moon

“Human spaceflight is the ultimate team sport” NASA saying

Fifty four years after the last Apollo moon mission, overnight a new generation was able to witness the successful launch of Artemis II NASA’s test flight of their Orion programme matching but hopefully exceeding the goals of Apollo 8.

Four astronauts should fly further than any humans have from earth, revisit the dark side of the Moon and return safely to earth with a system tested as the foundation for a much bigger goal: sustained human presence on the lunar surface and to put a human on Mars.

For my family, especially my young son, woken to witness lift off, this was a big event. I’m pleased to see it has made some of the front pages, though not all. Moon shots and indeed all space exploration has much to tell us about ourselves. It’s no wonder political strategists have looked to such missions as blueprints for political relaunches.

The vision, the unity of purpose, the aiming high, the enthusiasm of those involved,  the detailed planning, the efficient and flexible execution of a that plan, the acceptance of risk. The lure for political movements to try and match all that is obvious.

Yesterday the anticipation had built, for lesser reasons, as two leaders announced they would address their media and people about the state of life on earth – or at least the cost of living on it – and it turned out they both failed to rise to the occasion let alone loose the bonds of earth and had very little of import to say.

Keir Starmer started with a press conference that could have been a short video, to reassure everyone that the Government has a plan, and ‘we’ve got your back’ now that apparently it has become clear the war with Iran “will affect us here at home”.

I’m not clear who in the UK wasn’t already aware of that on day one of the conflict, involved or not, and there was no detail on how exactly the UK Government has our backs, whilst those watching feel theirs are up against a financial wall. It was a failure to launch, and seemed more about filling a gap – given there’s no PMQS during Easter recess – which robbed the Prime Minister of his new, free, party political broadcast which he now likes to wedge in every Wednesday.

Donald Trump was widely ‘expected to’ address the American people to tell them the war with Iran was over, or the USA was pulling out of NATO, or whatever the speculation the waiting media could come up with.

Overnight America produced the ‘sound and fury’ of the SLS rocket system literally ‘blasting’ into space, but the President’s overnight (in the UK) eighteen minute address rather signified nothing much at all. The Telegraph describes a ‘tired looking’ Trump having nothing to say other than it will apparently all be over soon. Which he’s said before and might, sadly, have to come out and say again. Iran is not playing the way he’d hoped.

Labour were still trying to suggest that Conservative support for letting the US use our bases from the start was not just headlong involvement but akin to riding a missile to Tehran, whooping cowboy style. However since our bases were attacked anyway, and we had flown Labour backed sorties in Jan 2025 to strike Houthi (Iranian backed) missile sites the last time there were issues around the Strait of Hormuz it all seems a tired overplayed election ploy.

The similarities with Apollo 8 are not just mission goals and destination. When Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders were the first humans to leave our planet’s gravitational sphere and to look back at an Earth rise, they did so with their country engaged in an unpopular war and serious economic challenges affecting the nations of the world.

Their success in December 1968 went some way to offering a hope of something better that humans could aspire to, work towards and actually see delivered.

I said that the lure to match that in politics is powerful.

The ever marmite Dominic Cummings admired the systems ethos of Apollo, wanting to match the more levelled out hierarchy of an army of skilled and highly motivated personnel driving forward cutting edge change in government. The jury may be still out – or has passed several verdicts – on his success with that, but today’s Tory party could still learn lessons from this arena.

You have to have the central vision, the audacity to aim high, and a crowd of skilled and motivated people who’ve done the detail over and over again and are ready to put it in place, aware that along the way, they will need to be as flexible and resourceful as the astronauts on Apollo 13, when it comes to sheer survival. The question is can you even match that?

NASA’s own coverage of the launch last night – with the look and feel of a TV network special – kept stressing the phrase I started with, that human space flight is the ultimate team sport. The message – yes part of very carefully curated PR – was this is inspiring stuff that brings hopes and dreams alive for a younger generation to work hard and reach their goals because it can be done.

If any political party can do that without resorting to the promise of ‘free moons for everyone’ or shouting ‘you want the moon we’ll give you Saturn’ and just for kicks suggesting all that is ‘free’ then they will experience a lift off that will eventually leave the humdrum behind.

The Orion is orbiting our planet right now, whilst we worry about real time serious issues down here. But it’s still a powerful image of what can be done if you can harness the ethos of those who got it there and the millions of human contributions it took to achieve.

Whether any politician, and any party, have the verve and ambition to match that ethos, to get actual delivery and without standing up and offering hollow monologues, really remains to be seen.

We’ve not seen ought but promises yet.