Stephen Panus

"Grief changes shape, but it never ends" Keanu Reeves "WALK ON" “A book that will inspire you & fill you with hope” “Grips your soul & forces you to feel deeply" “Courageous & Brilliant” "a must-read and an instant classic" Order today! amzn.to/3OkToLs @andersoncooper

Reid Wiseman told his two teenage daughters where to find his will before he got on this rocket. He’s raised them alone since their mom died of cancer six years ago. Right now, he is 252,757 miles from home, farther from Earth than any human being has ever been. Wiseman grew up outside Baltimore. Got rejected from the Naval Academy, went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute instead, studied computer engineering. Became a Navy fighter pilot, flew F-14 Tomcats (the jet from Top Gun) on combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan. Two Middle East deployments by his mid-twenties. He saw a Space Shuttle launch in person in 2001 and couldn’t let go of it. Applied to NASA while at sea on the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. They picked him. Nine people out of 3,500 applicants. His astronaut class, nicknamed “The Chumps,” included Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian who’s floating next to him right now. Wiseman’s first trip to space was 165 days on the Space Station in 2014. Two spacewalks. Thirteen hours outside the hull in nothing but a suit. He climbed all the way up to Chief of the Astronaut Office, the person who decides which astronauts fly and which ones sit. Then he gave it up in 2022 to put himself back on the flight list. His wife Carroll was a nurse in a newborn intensive care unit. She got cancer. Fought it five years. Died in May 2020 at 46. His mother died from Alzheimer’s just weeks before that. Wiseman raised both daughters by himself after that. NASA’s own bio says he considers being a single parent his hardest challenge and the best part of his life. Even while she was dying, Carroll told Reid not to step back from his career. She made him keep going. His brother is a Navy SEAL. His father is 83 and battling cancer too. The old man told reporters he wanted to stay alive long enough to see his son launch. Before liftoff, Wiseman’s daughters snuck homemade cookies into his flight bag. He posted a photo with them in front of the rocket and wrote “I’m boarding that rocket a very proud father.” The previous distance record from Earth belonged to the Apollo 13 crew. 248,655 miles, set in April 1970, and it was an accident. An oxygen tank blew up and the emergency route home happened to swing them farther out than anyone before. Wiseman broke that record by 4,100 miles, and his distance is on purpose. Today he flies within 4,600 miles of the Moon, photographs stretches of the far side that were too dark or at the wrong angle for any of the 24 Apollo astronauts to see, and watches a solar eclipse that nobody on Earth can see, only the four people inside that capsule. Then he turns around and spends four days flying home to his girls.

Sometimes, a column can do more to capture the context & significance of a story than news coverage. @JerryBrewer crystalized the essence of the Geno Auriemma/Dawn Staley contretemps with perceptive, sharp & graceful writing -- all on a tight deadline. nytimes.com/athletic/71713…

Geno Auriemma came far closer to a Woody Hayes moment Friday night than anyone should be comfortable with. It was a warning sign. And hopefully there are people in his life who will tell him the truth. Column for ⁦@YahooSports⁩ sports.yahoo.com/mens-college-b…

At @UofSC @GamecockWBB, banners don’t just hang, they multiply…and with @dawnstaley on the sideline, the standard for greatness never drops, it just gets defended. Win with humility, lose with grace because class is one thing no scoreboard can ever measure. @GamecocksOnline

UConn couldn't recover from Raven Johnson's defense 🔒 The Huskies shot 7-24 for 17 points and 3 turnovers on 28 halfcourt plays when Johnson was the final defender. Azzi Fudd went 1-5 with 1 turnover on those plays.

Way to lockdown @GamecockWBB !!! One to go

Classless. His team got outplayed.

ARTEMIS II AS SEEN BY THE OFFICIAL NASA CESSNA THIS IS THE BEST LAUNCH VIDEO AND IT ISN'T CLOSE

No longer daily, but just as impactful, and loud. Be the human everyone wishes they had met today...kindness is contagious stephenpanus.com/the-loud-pause

You can ignore the truth, but you can’t escape the consequences. Today's Daily Pause: stephenpanus.com/the-daily-pause

You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your habits. Take a moment, this might be the pause you didn’t know you needed: stephenpanus.com/the-daily-pause

LlO P

Did spyo

If time alone won’t change your life…what are you doing with it today that actually will? stephenpanus.com/the-daily-pause

CT = Home of Elite Hoops and Legendary Pizza. 18th consecutive year where either @UConnMBB or @UConnWBB has made the Final Four. Since 1995, 18 Championship titles reside in Storrs, CT. Pizza capital = @frankpepepizza @sallysapizza @ModernPizza @colonygrill @ZuppardisApizza and the list goes on

Here’s another view. Unapologetically. Cannot get enough.