So, on the very night of April 1st Full Moon, humanity flies again to the Moon?

Found this on reddit:

Wait a minute. Did all trips to the moon also involve circling it? Looks like it, from the above visual.

Google AI says yes:

In fact, it turns out that Apollo 8, in December 1968, circled the Moon 10 times in 20 hours!

So then, I ask, why is this trip to circle the moon such a big deal? We already know what’s on the “dark side of the Moon,” don’t we? Or have things changed in the more than 50 years since 1972, and the the last NASA mission to the Moon?

The Apollo missions shut down at the end of 1972 in favor of using the fund to instead fund a reusable NEO (Near Earth Orbit) Space Shuttle:

Google AI:

So yes, after more than 50 years, we are again going back to the Moon.

Check this out. In its entirety. Details, second by second, the massive explosive power Artemis II needed to lift off Earth and loop around the Moon. I excerpt only the final paragraphs here:

Earlier in the post, we see the mathematics:

Wow.

My immediate thought:  our space/time framework does appear to be stable! And the four astronauts, obviously, count on that being the case.

I tend to agree with Jordan Sather, who notes that our way of lifting off into space is actually antediluvian, compared to what humans are capable of now.