From Goddard’s Cabbage Patch to Artemis II.

One century after Robert Goddard’s modest 41‑foot, liquid‑fuel launch in Auburn, Massachusetts, the space industry has become a worldwide launch ecosystem. This week Canada announced a multi‑billion‑dollar investment in a new spaceport on Nova Scotia’s coast, positioning the nation alongside the United States, Europe and emerging Asian players. The proximity of the Nova Scotia site to Goddard’s original field—roughly the same distance as Auburn to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center—highlights how a single experiment sparked a network of launch pads, orbital vehicles and commercial opportunities that now span continents.

Jeff Carr, president of Griffin Communications, grew up in the Apollo bubble; his father served as Capcom for Apollo 8 and Apollo 12 and was slated for the canceled Apollo 19 moonshot. Carr’s childhood memories of watching the Apollo 8 crew receive the go‑for‑TLI call from Houston illustrate how live media shaped national pride during a turbulent 1960s. He describes his father’s resilience after the program’s funding cuts as a lesson in perseverance, and he draws a direct line from those historic moments to today’s Artemis II mission, hoping it will spark a similar collective awakening.

Artemis II, currently on the launch pad, represents the United States’ first crewed deep‑space flight since Apollo, and industry leaders argue it could provide the same healing narrative that Apollo 8 offered during a period of civil unrest. Carr urges space communicators to tell the story boldly, emphasizing that risk‑taking and hard‑won achievements are essential to national identity. By framing Artemis as a demonstration of “we can do hard things,” the mission may rekindle public enthusiasm, attract new talent, and reinforce America’s strategic position in an increasingly competitive global space arena.