Category: Nonfiction
Reviewed by: Casey Suire
Title: Return to Launch: Florida and America’s Space Industry
Author: Stephen C. Smith
Format: Hardcover/Kindle
Pages: 348
Publisher: University of Florida Press
Date: March 2026
Retail price: $38.00/$36.10
ISBN: 978-1683406563

By Burt Dicht
NSS Space Coast Correspondent
NSS Managing Director of Membership

More than half a century after the last Apollo astronauts left the Moon’s neighborhood, four human beings climbed aboard an Orion spacecraft, rode a pillar of 8.8 million pounds of thrust into the Florida sky, and flew farther from home than anyone in history. When they came back ni...

Now we must focus on continued forward-looking goals

In the evening of April 10, the Artemis 2 mission concluded with a flawless reentry and splashdown off the coast of Southern California. From its launch on April 1 to the crew recovery on Friday, the flight was one for the history books, with every major system working as planned.

“Congratulat...

By Burt Dicht
NSS Space Coast Correspondent

Artemis II – By the Numbers

Flight Day 10 — Friday, April 10, 2026

Status at Wake-Up

The crew began the final phase of their journey home to the songs “Run to the Water” by Live — selected by the crew themselves and “Free” by Zac Brown Band, a...

By Burt Dicht
NSS Space Coast Correspondent

THE FINAL FULL DAY IN SPACE

Flight Day 9 – Almost Home

On their last full day in space, the Artemis II crew began the morning with “Lonesome Drifter” by Charley Crockett, approaching Earth at 147,337 miles. By midday, Orion was traveling at 2,808 mph — a speed that...