Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Friday, April 11th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 18 minutes, setting at 8:23, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:03. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 6:44 tomorrow morning.

As someone who has watched the Apollo program progress, back in the 1960s, and the race to get to the Moon before the Russkies, the Artemis program seems rather sluggish. Most of the reason of course, is because it isn’t enough of a high priority, and we’re trying to do it on the cheap, reusing as much of the ill-fated space shuttle hardware as possible. NASA is gun shy about putting astronauts into danger, when they don’t have to. The Apollo 1, and two Space Shuttle accidents is the main reason that Butch and Suni didn’t ride back to Earth in their ailing Starliner capsule. The Starliner capsule is built by the same company, Boeing, who is prime contractor on the main stage of the moon rocket. Both have experienced long delays, and quality issues.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum