There’s something brilliantly humbling about NASA astronauts. These are people who wake up, look at a rocket the size of a cathedral, and go “Yeah, I’ll sit on top of that and see how it goes.” Absolute legends.
And now, with renewed focus on lunar exploration, attention is drifting back towards one of the most mysterious places in our celestial neighbourhood: the far side of the Moon. The bit we never see. The “don’t call us, we’ll call you” side of the Moon.
The far side isn’t actually dark, despite the nickname. It gets sunlight like everywhere else. But it’s permanently facing away from Earth due to tidal locking, which is a wonderfully polite way of saying the Moon and Earth have been stuck in the same awkward dance for billions of years and neither of them is brave enough to switch partners.
NASA’s modern lunar missions are exploring this region more closely than ever, mapping craters, studying radiation environments, and generally doing the sort of work that makes the rest of us feel slightly guilty for struggling to find matching socks in the morning.
Now imagine being one of the astronauts involved in all this. You’re training in simulators, learning orbital mechanics, practising emergency procedures… and at some point someone in your life casually drops the most classic parent ambition line of all time:
“I think my Dad always wanted me to be an astronaut. He always said I should have been shot into space!”
Which, let’s be honest, is either extremely supportive parenting… or a very early indication that Dad had concerns about your behaviour near fireworks.
Either way, becoming an astronaut is one of those rare career paths where your job description includes phrases like “controlled descent,” “high risk environment,” and “please don’t panic while orbiting Earth at 17,000 miles per hour.” Normal office jobs really don’t compete with that.
And then there’s the far side of the Moon itself. No direct radio contact with Earth. No familiar blue planet hanging in the sky. Just silence, craters, and the unsettling realisation that your sat nav is absolutely useless.
Still, you can imagine the humour that must creep into those long training sessions. Because when you strip away the science and engineering brilliance, astronauts are still just people in extremely expensive outfits thinking things like, “Did I definitely lock the rover?”
And somewhere in mission control, a calm voice will be saying, “Everything is nominal,” while an astronaut quietly wonders if “nominal” includes forgetting where you parked your lunar module.
The truth is, space exploration has always had this beautiful mix of awe and absurdity. We send humans to the edge of possibility, wrapped in technology, courage, and probably a packed lunch that cost more than a small house.
And yet, whether it’s the far side of the Moon or a training simulator in Houston, the spirit is the same: curiosity, bravery, and a slight suspicion that your dad might have been joking… but also maybe not entirely wrong about the whole “shot into space” thing. 🚀
