{"id":463630,"date":"2026-05-01T18:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/463630\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T18:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:14:14","slug":"artemis-crew-surprises-5-year-old-aspiring-astronaut-with-special-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/463630\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis crew surprises 5-year-old aspiring astronaut with special gift"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Watch: Artemis II crew surprises 5-year-old aspiring astronaut with new spacesuit 01:35<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Artemis II team gained a new member Friday, and the crew made sure their youngest teammate had the right stuff for space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When the Artemis crew\u00a0<a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/live-updates\/nasa-artemis-ii-launch\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:launched from Florida;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">launched from Florida<\/a>\u00a0last month, Jack, a 5-year-old aspiring astronaut from Atlanta, told CBS News he&#8217;s &#8220;so obsessed with space&#8221; and wore his own spacesuit for the launch. The suit bore the rank of commander, so CBS News&#8217; Rob Marciano gave Jack a nickname: Commander Jack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Commander Jack, dressed in his white spacesuit, joined &#8220;CBS Mornings&#8221; Friday for a <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/artemis-crew-town-hall-kids-moon-flight-best-roller-coaster-ride\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:town hall event;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">town hall event<\/a> with the Artemis crew, and the astronauts had a surprise for him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mission specialist Christina Koch presented Jack with an orange spacesuit matching the ones the astronauts wore during the mission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It says commander just like yours, so you can still keep your title,&#8221; Koch said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The spacesuit was signed by the crew, but another feature of the suit caught Jack&#8217;s eye.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch gives 5-year-old Jack a spacesuit during a CBS News town hall on May 1, 2026. \/ Credit: CBS News\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4af673f8c5c8e50cdbb4e09ffd8fb708.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch gives 5-year-old Jack a spacesuit during a CBS News town hall on May 1, 2026. \/ Credit: CBS News<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It says NASA!&#8221; Jack exclaimed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We would like to have you on our team,&#8221; Koch said. &#8220;What do you think?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Jack gave a thumbs-up, rushed over to his parents for a hug and then thanked Koch with a hug as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Jack has been hugely inspired by this mission and by all of you,&#8221; Jack&#8217;s mom told the astronauts. &#8220;So thank you so much for everything you&#8217;re doing, obviously not just for Jack, but for all of humanity.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch: Artemis II crew surprises 5-year-old aspiring astronaut with new spacesuit 01:35 The Artemis II team gained a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[189931,203737,18,19,17,203738,133,451],"class_list":{"0":"post-463630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-christina-koch","9":"tag-commander-jack","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-rob-marciano","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-space"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116500684808080409","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}