The Artemis II crew has taken off into space. But before their historic trip to the moon on Monday, they fit in some movie time to watch Ryan Gosling’s new film “Project Hail Mary.”
“We were all really lucky. We got to watch ‘Hail Mary’ when we were in quarantine,” astronaut Jeremy Hansen told SpaceQ in an interview on Sunday.
Hansen and his team, which includes NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, are currently on a 10-day trip to travel around the moon — the farthest humans have ever traveled from the planet, besting Apollo 13’s 248,655 miles from 1970.
“That was a real treat that they sent us a link to view at home with our families, getting us ready to go on our own space adventure,” Hansen added. “I would just say to Ryan, art imitates science and vice versa, it seems. He did a great job in that movie. It’s wonderful to see people really leaning into those roles. I thought it was just such an inspirational example, and somebody who goes out there and just gets what was done to save humanity. It’s a pretty extraordinary example that we can all follow. We all thought that movie was really uplifting and inspiring.”
In the film, Gosling stars as Ryland Grace, a science teacher who wakes up on a spaceship with no idea how he got there. He soon learns that he’s on mission to learn about a strange substance that’s making the sun die out.
In a message to the astronauts last week, Gosling cheered on the travelers in a celebratory video: “The Artemis II astronauts are going to space for real, and they will travel farther from Earth than any humans in history. Sending all our best wishes to the Artemis II crew.”
“Project Hail Mary” is now playing in theaters.
