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Ray D'Arcy Daily

Ep19; Artemis Audio, Ask Bernard Anything and The Happy Hypocrite

02 Apr 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: Who are the astronauts on the Artemis II mission?

3.423 - 27.577 Ray D'Arcy

Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. They're the four history-making astronauts that are now orbiting the Earth. And then they'll be on the way to the moon. It's very exciting, very historic. We're going to play you loads of little clips. from last night. There's brilliant audio from last night. NASA are brilliant.

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27.597 - 42.614 Ray D'Arcy

You can go onto their website and all the different bits of audio. A dream for me. A dream for me. Usually you get up in the morning, you have to go here, there and everywhere to get bits of audio from news stories from the night before. NASA has them all there. All well labelled.

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43.395 - 67.948 Ray D'Arcy

Anyway, there's terminology you will need to know as you go through your weekend, your Easter weekend, because there will be conversations about Artemis 2. So, L-E-O. L-E-O, do you know what that meant? Low Earth Orbit. Low Earth Orbit. So, a lot of the records have been broken because of Low Earth Orbit. So, for example, a woman has never left Low Earth Orbit before.

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69.409 - 95.729 Ray D'Arcy

A black American has never left Low Earth Orbit before. So, they're all records there. And these people, these astronauts, are going further from Earth than any other human being has ever gone before. You do have to... You expect some sort of orchestrated music behind you when you say things like that. It's phenomenal. The statistics are phenomenal.

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95.909 - 121.326 Ray D'Arcy

So the total 10-day journey, they're going to cover 240,000 miles. They will reach a speed of 17... 1,500 miles per hour. 17,500 miles per hour. Put a speed camera on that one. So collectively, Artemis II's Orion space capsule could fly them farther from Earth than any human being before. We've said that.

121.347 - 153.023 Ray D'Arcy

The crew is expected to reach more than 4,600 miles beyond the far side of the moon on flight day six. And just short of 253,000 miles from home, breaking the April 1970 record of 248,655 miles. set by ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. And if you want that in kilometres, that's 400,000 kilometres that they went back in 1970. And this current crew are going to go 407,000 kilometres.

153.374 - 155.657 Ray D'Arcy

It's mind-boggling statistics.

Chapter 2: What records are being broken by Artemis II's crew?

155.817 - 175.703 Ray D'Arcy

Mind-boggling statistics. And they're going to the dark side of the moon. More about space and its influence on music in a moment. And they're going to see parts of the moon never seen by human eyes before. And all of this, all of this is plans...

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176.611 - 192.443 Ray D'Arcy

Eventually, right, what we want to do, when I say we, the human race, and not really we because it's a small group of people in one country and maybe in other countries as well as in China and maybe India and maybe Russia. Anyway, what they want to do is inhabit the moon.

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193.182 - 215.612 Ray D'Arcy

and do what they've done to Earth, as in reap all the natural resources, the raw materials from the moon, and leave it in a sort of a decrepit state and then move on to Mars. That's the plan. That's the plan. Anyway, it must be very exciting for those four people. And they've been living in each other's pockets for the last three years.

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216.217 - 242.432 Ray D'Arcy

I read an interview where one of them said that they've been together every day since 2023. So they know each other inside out, which is important because they're living in very close quarters. for them in a capsule the size of a camper van. And they'll be doing everything that you have to do as a human being in that little confined space for 10 days. I suppose 10 days isn't that long.

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244.075 - 266.937 Ray D'Arcy

Anyway, very exciting, very exciting. And last night, it happened, the launch. And there were moments... when people thought it wouldn't happen, there were little glitches. Now, if I was in the capsule and I heard the word glitches, I'd go, that's okay, fine, I won't go. I want to meet the in-laws over Easter. We've alternative plans. So count me out.

267.498 - 291.951 Ray D'Arcy

I know I've been rehearsing training for this for years and years and years, but if there's a glitch, count me out, count me out. Anyway, there was a Go No Go conference, which is a brilliant name for anything, a Go No Go conference. about, I think about 20 minutes before the launch. And they go around to all the various departments of Artemis II and the Czech. Go, no go, go, no go.

292.031 - 311.395 Ray D'Arcy

And they all say, go, go, go. And then finally, the launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, speaks to the astronauts for the last time. Well, for the last time when they're on Earth, on terra firma. And then she gives, she gives the go ahead for the launch.

311.965 - 313.828 Reid Wiseman

And Integrity, Launch Director.

316.111 - 321.218 Christina Koch

Good Airways, Charlie, PLT. Thank you, Charlie. This is Victor.

Chapter 3: How will Artemis II's mission impact future space exploration?

325.844 - 341.365 Christina Koch

This is Christina. We are going for our teammates. MS-2. This is Jeremy. We are going for all humanity. All right, Charlie, your Artemis II crew is go for launch. Full send.

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342.256 - 364.987 Reid Wiseman

Reed, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, on this historic mission, you take with you the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation. Good luck. Godspeed, Artemis II. Let's go.

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365.027 - 389.175 Charlie Blackwell-Thompson

And here we go. Ten, nine, Eight, seven, RS-25 engines, eight, four, three, two, one, booster ignition, and liftoff. The crew of Artemis II now bound for the moon. Humanity's next great voyage begins.

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394.501 - 395.402 Christina Koch

Good roll pitch.

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397.024 - 419.342 Jeremy Hansen

Roger, roll pitch. Houston, now controlling the flight of integrity on the Artemis 2 mission around the phone. It's spine-tingling stuff, isn't it? Just listening to it. On time, passing 30 seconds to the flights. Integrity passes the alternate vehicle.

419.362 - 433.961 Ray D'Arcy

Target milestone. Mission control, Houston. Listen to it, it's spine-tingling. Imagine being there. Imagine being there. Well, Rebecca Morrell was there for the BBC. She got very excited. Very, very excited. Very, very.

435.768 - 438.118 Rebecca Morrell

Oh, my goodness.

438.319 - 438.379

Oh.

441.785 - 462.349 Rebecca Morrell

Wow. Oh my goodness. That is spectacular. It's not just what you see and you hear as the rocket lifts off. You can actually feel the force of it through your body. This is the most powerful rocket that NASA has ever built.

Chapter 4: What challenges do astronauts face in space travel?

463.37 - 488.802 Ray D'Arcy

The most powerful rocket going the furthest distance. That was Rebecca Morrell for the BBC. Now there's some terminology you may be getting mixed up there because you heard integrity and you heard Orion and you hear Artemis 2. So just, this is my understanding and you may need this over the weekend. Artemis 2 is the mission, right? Integrity is the spacecraft named by the four astronauts.

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488.967 - 511.633 Ray D'Arcy

And integrity is a type of Orion. So say Orion is Ford and then integrity is an Escort. So a Ford Escort and Orion integrity. Do you see what I'm saying? So that's why there's all sorts of different words and labels been thrown around. They, luckily, they luckily know what they're talking about. And there was a glitch. There was a glitch overnight.

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512.828 - 538.362 Ray D'Arcy

It might not rank as NASA's number one triumph or even its number two, but they managed to fix the loo. Yes. And the crew may take comfort in solving this problem more than any other on the mission. The fix came roughly six hours into the flight, a period during which at least one astronaut had to resort to peeing in a bag. It was a NASA flight approved bag, but it was a bag.

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539.384 - 562.562 Ray D'Arcy

Soon after launch, NASA confirmed that there was a problem with the toilet fan on the Orion spacecraft. The issue was due to a malfunctioning controller, a part in the toilet's control system, said NASA Associate Administrator Amit at a press conference. The particular difficulty for Armitage 2's toilet meant that while astronauts could still poop in the toilet, they couldn't pee in it.

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563.386 - 586.238 Ray D'Arcy

And this is the question that astronauts are most often asked, particularly by children and men of a certain age. How do you go to the loo when you're in space? In space toilets, it says here, fans aren't there just to air the place out. In zero gravity, the airflow also helps pull waste into the toilet, preventing it from drifting into the cabin. Messy, messy, messy.

586.218 - 608.67 Ray D'Arcy

This was a real problem on Apollo and earlier missions where the spacecraft had no toilets and astronauts had to poop in plastic bags taped with their butts. Very comfortable. A faulty seal could lead to incidents of the kind experienced most infamously on Apollo 10. An example line from the mission transcript. Give me a napkin quick. There's a turd floating through the air.

610.334 - 623.978 Ray D'Arcy

Sorry, I shouldn't laugh. It's a bit puerile, a little bit scatological. But that's, you know, that's what happens. That's the reality of space travel. And it is something that intrigues an awful lot of people about space travel. The good news is they managed to fix the loo. Yay!

Chapter 5: How do astronauts manage personal relationships during missions?

624.019 - 650.139 Ray D'Arcy

They fixed the loo. So it's a 10-day trip. And Space.com got to interview Victor Glover, who's one of the four astronauts now orbiting the Earth. And he's an interesting character. And they were asking Victor, who will be the first black man to get that far away from the Earth, out of low Earth orbit.

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650.719 - 658.446 Ray D'Arcy

They asked him, how does he handle the stresses and the anxieties and the worries about doing what he does for a living?

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658.426 - 674.924 Victor Glover

I don't know. I'm very protective of my emotional well-being and my mental bandwidth. So I don't think of things in ways that are going to put pressure on me. I don't. I do. I like to simplify. Colin Powell said a great leader is a great simplifier.

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675.724 - 687.657 Victor Glover

And so I try very hard to make these things into very simple widgets that I can use to understand the vehicle, my team and our mission and then put together solutions that make sense.

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688.092 - 703.401 Ray D'Arcy

Oh yeah, simplify it. Of course it's not... It is, actually. It is rocket science, yeah. So in that interview, which was done last September, Victor Glover admitted to listening to one song every Monday morning.

704.427 - 723.299 Ray D'Arcy

one song every Monday morning to remind him about back in 1968, 69, when the first Apollo missions were being launched and the American government were spending millions, billions equivalent on space travel. And yet a lot of black people in America were living in poverty.

724.24 - 738.668 Victor Glover

And it is, it is a song now. It's originally a poem and it's called Whitey on the Moon by Gil Scott Heron. And it's funny because that space symposium caused me a lot of grief in the next months because people tried to quote me out of context and it ain't about racism, it's about the human condition.

739.048 - 753.216 Victor Glover

That song is a reminder that everybody wasn't having a good time in 1968 when we launched the first Apollo missions. People were struggling. Some people were like, these bills and these potholes, like my condition hasn't been improved by NASA.

753.517 - 756.901 Unknown

A rat done bit my sister Nell with Whitey on the moon.

Chapter 6: What role does music play in space travel?

821.211 - 850.811 Ray D'Arcy

Yeah, so music and space travel. And just before we leave Victor Lover and Whitey on the Moon, $93 billion, that's 81 billion euro, has been spent on this Artemis mission since 2012. That's a lot of money. And maybe a lot of people still believe that that money could be channeled into more important earthbound issues. Anyway, music and space.

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850.871 - 864.153 Ray D'Arcy

Of course, back in the late 60s and early 70s when we put a man on the moon, that's amazing, isn't it? When you listen back to that recording from all those years ago.

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864.193 - 873.147 Reid Wiseman

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

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873.295 - 896.579 Ray D'Arcy

Yeah, we were so excited. My brother Hughie was obsessed with space travel. He got an Apollo patch and sewed it onto his denim jacket. Well, he didn't, my mum did, but it was on his denim jacket. And of course, singers were influenced to write songs. And even when I listen back to that, you know, that brilliant piece of audio.

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896.599 - 918.001 Charlie Blackwell-Thompson

And here we go. 10, 9, 8, 7, Seven. RS-25 engines, lift. Four, three, two, one. Booster ignition. And lift off. The crew of Artemis II now bound for the moon. Humanity's next great voyage begins.

923.471 - 924.312 Christina Koch

Good roll pitch.

924.933 - 935.467 Bernard O'Shea

Roger, roll pitch.

937.47 - 961.372 Ray D'Arcy

Pitch perfect, David Bowie. You see, you hear it, I hear it, I hear it. Of course, Elton John wrote Rocketman. So that's over 50 years ago. Nearly 60 years ago. that men were doing that. And they're trying to answer it. I haven't heard a satisfactory answer yet. Why did it take this long? They're talking about money.

961.492 - 979.581 Ray D'Arcy

They're talking about the International Space Station where they had to sort out other things before they went back to concentrate on the moon. And the moon is now only a stepping stone to Mars. And what filled the void in all those years? Well, movies. Loads of movies with all the stars in them.

Chapter 7: How do astronauts handle the realities of using the bathroom in space?

980.162 - 996.256 Ray D'Arcy

Interstellar and that one with George Clooney. Yeah. So, space travel has obviously inspired art over the years. Amazing art. And here we go. Yeah, here we go again.

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996.417 - 1016.066 Charlie Blackwell-Thompson

Ten, nine, eight, seven, RS-25 engines. Okay. Two. One. Booster ignition. And liftoff. Here we go again. The crew of Artemis II now bound for the moon. Humanity's next great voyage begins.

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1019.67 - 1054.479 Ray D'Arcy

Ah, that sound. Something that's... Good roll pitch. Roger. Roll pitch. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's good. Space travel, inspired art, not all good art. The Firm and Star Trekking. Which reminds me, Bernard O'Shea is on the way. Bernard O'Shea is on the way. Just before that, himself was addressing the nation last night. And I want a Stewart's Inquiry. I want a Stewart's Inquiry.

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1054.939 - 1079.299 Ray D'Arcy

How could the committee involved in the Nobel Prize for Peace not give that man the Nobel Prize for Peace? Like he's talking about bombing them back to the Stone Age as they deserve. Like that's peace. That's real pure peace talk. God, yeah. If it wasn't so serious, it would be funny. It would be funny. Do you know misery loves company?

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1079.419 - 1101.179 Ray D'Arcy

Well, a lot of Irish football fans will be taking comfort from the fact that Italy have not qualified for the World Cup either. So there's some company for your misery, lads. Bernd O'Shea on the way. We've achieved so much, haven't we, mankind?

Chapter 8: What insights does Victor Glover share about the mission?

1101.84 - 1117.438 Ray D'Arcy

And of course, the people who were involved in Artemis II are standing on the shoulders of giants and all those Apollo people and the people before them. And yeah, technology fascinates me. And I think we have the technology now to go to Limerick.

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1117.458 - 1122.964 Bernard O'Shea

Come in, Limerick. Limerick calling. Limerick here. Sorry, Dublin. Dublin, do you hear us, Dublin?

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1122.944 - 1135.843 Ray D'Arcy

You're coming in loudly and clearly. Good, good. Bernard, it always fascinates me that we can communicate like this. I know, I'm from a different age. The fact that I'm sitting here, you're sitting there, we can see each other and hear each other. I know.

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1135.883 - 1156.976 Bernard O'Shea

I was telling my kids recently about phone boxes. And they were going, what? Because they saw one in a little village, we were driving to Centre Parcs, where we basically, where I'll probably end up, you know, my ashes being sprayed over Centre Parcs. But we were driving and they said, what's that? I said, it's a phone box. And I said, well, what do you do?

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1156.996 - 1168.697 Bernard O'Shea

I said, well, you'd go in and you'd have coins and you'd put it in and you'd dial the number and you'd ring somebody. And they were, but how do you know if someone is there? I said, no, you'd kind of have it somewhat arranged. And do you know what? They did not believe me.

1169.398 - 1188.574 Ray D'Arcy

Did they not? They didn't believe me there were phone boxes. it's like because I used to live in a phone box because we didn't have a phone and when I was 14, 15, 16 I was going out with this girl and I used to ring her regularly I still have her number in my head and of course there were a couple of tricks then you could tap the phone in the old phones you could tap the number out

1188.554 - 1207.214 Ray D'Arcy

Did you ever do that? No? No. The other receiver on the old phones, you could tap it out and then you could dial a zero. Tap, tap, tap. Zero. Tap, tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. And that would dial it and it'd be free. You wouldn't have to put any coinage in. And the other cheat was this one, which was mad. There was a guy called Maggie McGee, we called him.

1207.414 - 1229.123 Ray D'Arcy

He was a local guy, but he'd been born in America. So he qualified to join the American Army, Air Force, whatever. Went back to America and then he used to ring the local phone box outside the chipper and reverse charges. So I don't know how we knew we were going to be there. So we'd be there, the phone would ring, right?

1229.845 - 1241.941 Ray D'Arcy

And this American voice would go, we got a reverse charges from a Michael McGee in New York. Will you accept the charges? And we'd go, yeah, of Of course, yeah. We'd stay on the phone for a half an hour talking to Michael McGee.

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