Andy Curliss

Lock in, we’re Moonbound. Artemis II astronauts are more than halfway to their destination, and preparations for lunar flyby are underway. During their trip around the far side of the Moon, they will capture imagery to share with scientists (and you, too!).

1972 ➡️2026 Apollo 17 ➡️ Artemis II

Christina Koch was a firefighter at the South Pole at -111°F before she ever applied to be an astronaut. That was maybe the fourth most interesting line on her resume. She grew up in North Carolina, got three degrees from NC State, and her first real job was building deep-space instruments at NASA. Then she left for Antarctica. Spent three and a half years bouncing between the Arctic and Antarctic as a research scientist, including a full winter at the South Pole base. That means going months without sunlight or fresh food, with a crew of about 50 people and no way out until flights resume. While she was down there, she also joined the glacier search-and-rescue team. After coming back, she went to Johns Hopkins and built instruments for two NASA missions (one of them is still orbiting Jupiter right now). She figured out how to start a tiny vacuum pump that NASA designed for a future Mars rover. Johns Hopkins nominated it for their Invention of the Year in 2009. Then she went back to the field. More time in Antarctica and a stretch up in Greenland. A government research station in northern Alaska, near the top of the world. Then she ran another one in American Samoa, near the equator. In 2013, NASA selected her from 6,300 applicants. Eight people got in. Her first space mission was supposed to be a normal rotation on the International Space Station, but NASA extended it. She ended up staying 328 straight days and orbiting Earth 5,248 times, covering about 139 million miles (roughly 291 round trips to the Moon). Up there, she ran over 210 experiments, including tests of cancer drugs in zero gravity and 3D printers that can build structures close to human tissue. Six spacewalks, 42 hours floating outside the station. She learned Russian for the training. She flies supersonic jets. Right now, Koch is on Artemis II, heading for a flyby behind the far side of the Moon. The crew launched on April 1 and is on track to travel about 252,000 miles from Earth, which would break the all-time human distance record of 248,655 miles set by Apollo 13 in 1970. That record has stood for 56 years, and it was set during a disaster that nearly killed the crew. Fred Haise, one of the Apollo 13 astronauts, is 92 now. He told Koch: "I heard you're going to break our record." Nobody had left Earth's neighborhood since December 1972. Koch and her three crewmates are the first in 53 years, and they are coming home at about 25,000 mph. That is faster than any crewed spacecraft has ever come back through the atmosphere.

Some believe "the food system" is failing our children's health. The data tell a more complicated story. Op-ed in @agripulse here👇and full, in-depth Carver report at: carverfood.org/research/chron…

The data on children's health is more complicated than the headlines suggest. In @AgriPulse, @carver_food Chairman Andy Curliss examines what the numbers actually show — and what it means for the farm bill debate. [agri-pulse.com/articles/24444…] #FarmBill #ChildrensHealth

This is the shot you can’t get from the press site. This camera was sitting a few football fields from the SLS rocket at Pad 39B for days before launch, baking in the Florida sun, surviving rain, humidity, and whatever else the Cape threw at it. No photographer behind the viewfinder. Just a camera, a sound trigger, and a bet. The way pad remotes work: you set your camera up days in advance, dial in your composition, lock everything down, and walk away. You don’t touch it again until after the launch. The shutter fires on sound activation with a @MiopsTrigger smart+ trigger. With SLS, the four RS-25 engines ignite six seconds before the solid rocket boosters, so the camera is already firing before the vehicle even leaves the pad. You get home, pull the card, and find out if you nailed it or if a bird landed on your lens two days ago and left your a present and you got 400 photos of soemthing crappy. There’s no formula for protecting your gear this close. Some photographers build wooden boxes with doors that pop open. Some use plastic bags and tape. Some do plastic or metal barn door rigs on hinges. I tend to leave mine open just in plastic rain covers because boxes limit my composition and setup time, but that means your cameras are more exposed to the elements and whatever energy and debris comes off the pad. You’re basically gambling a camera body every time you set one. That’s what I love about this genre. There’s no playbook. You make it up as you go. Every time is an adventure. 📸 credit: me for @SuperclusterHQ - Artemis II pad remote | ~1,000 ft from Pad 39B | Kennedy Space Center

@calleymeans This explains: carverfood.org/essays/ahaguid…

Ridiculous headline. The American Heart Association and U.S. Dietary Guidelines are aligned on all the big issues. We’re working closely together to ensure better school lunches, reform GRAS, and ensure more transparency for consumers. The media labels this as “clashing.”

The data on children's health is more complicated than the headlines suggest. In @AgriPulse today, @carver_food Chairman Andy Curliss examines what the numbers actually show — and what it means for the farm bill debate. [agri-pulse.com/articles/24444…] #FarmBill #ChildrensHealth

Kids today will never know the joy of a nine team ACC where players stayed all four years and you knew the starting five for pretty much every team in the conference. We had it all ladies & gentlemen.

I just called the U.S. Naval Observatory master clock on the phone - and it’s the same guy telling the time, still there since I was a kid. 202-762-1069. ⏰

Confused about saturated fat? This book published a decade ago detailed the politics, science and history of this controversial fat.

A great story for March Madness.

Seth Trimble has used his NIL money for something sweet: becoming an ice cream shop owner. The @UNC_Basketball star gives @jjones9 a tour around his store and talks about how he manages being a student-athlete and business owner.

The sleeping giant of election night victories...the massive block of Unaffiliated voters in NC.

I love this visualisation as it shows which nations dominated which categories at the 2026 Winter Olympics. We see Gold Medals only. The Norwegians dominate cross country skiing, the Dutch are fast on skates, the Germans love a slippery slope, the French boss the biathlon. Source: reddit.com/r/dataisbeauti…

"I'm lucky I'm from the best country in the world, and we've got great dentists there, too...😂 The USA brotherhood is so strong. We were so proud we could do it for them and everyone back home." Jack Hughes post game after his GOLDEN goal for #TeamUSA at the #Olympics:

The largest sewage spill in American history started nearly a month ago in Washington, DC and continues today. ‘It’ is in the Potomac and flowing downriver. Has been for weeks. The DC water utility says that “unusual activity” on Jan 19th tipped them off to the break and crews working hard to mitigate and resolve it. We need more on what the “activity” was but first need to make sure folks are safe from this disaster. Glad some local media like @WTOP on the story. Should be national.

Who's the biggest pesticide manufacturer in the world? Mother nature. She engineers plants with highly toxic chemicals to protect themselves. "Big Ag" just copied her playbook to help farmers protect their crops. @DrLizaMD explains on our @GeneticLiteracy podcast.

iOS 26.2 sucks!!! The design makes my phone almost unusable. SMH

iOS 26.2 has completely obliterated the battery life!