Name: Why the Artemis II crew played cards right before launch
Uploaded: 2026-04-02T01:10:00.544Z
Duration: 4 min 3 s
Description: Minutes before departing for the launch pad on Wednesday, the Artemis II crew completed one final task: a game of cards. Retired NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Cassidy joins CBS News to discuss the mission.

Minutes before departing for the launch pad on Wednesday, the Artemis II crew completed one final task: a game of cards. Retired NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Cassidy joins CBS News to discuss the mission.

Florida

Before heading to the launch pad, the Artemis II crew participated in a longstanding NASA tradition by playing a card game with chief astronaut Scott Tingle. The ritual is intended to transfer any bad luck to the chief, ensuring the crew departs on a positive note.

Retired astronaut Chris Cassidy reflected on the emotional aspects of watching friends launch, the challenges of crew selection, and the technical details of the mission's lunar trajectory. Cassidy emphasized the mission's importance for NASA and humanity, and expressed hope that it will inspire future generations of explorers.

Why the Artemis II crew played cards right before launch

Minutes before departing for the launch pad today, the crew completed one final task, a game of cards. This is a pre-flight tradition. It's meant to ward off bad luck. After suiting up, the crew played a quick game. I think it was highest card wins with the nation's chief astronaut, Scott Tingle. Tradition has it the crew keeps playing until the chief loses a round so he can take the bad luck and they can leave it on a positive note before the launch. So what does it take to be selected to eventually play cards in those card games? Let's talk to someone with firsthand experience, retired NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy SEAL, Chris Cassidy joins us now. Chris flew on three space missions, accumulating a total of 378 days in space and 10 spacewalks. Just wow. You know these members of Artemis II personally. What did you say to them? So great to be with you, by the way. What an exciting time for our nation, but humanity, it's just so fun to watch. People will remember this day forever. You know, thinking to the personal connection, four of my friends just left the planet and thinking back to those moments when you're watching your friends get on a rocket. It's much harder to put your friends on a rocket than it is to climb in it yourself. And so for the chief, for Scott Tingle, be playing those card games, he wants to take that bad luck with him with the card game. Selecting a crew is never easy. You try to fit together right personalities, right skillsets, what the mission is, what the international composition would be. In this case, Jeremy Hansen, an unbelievably talented guy who's waited 17 years for this mission, good friend of mine. So I'm just so excited for NASA, for those people and for all of us here on Earth. Well said, sir. And I want to pick up on what Mark and I were talking about with that slingshot maneuver toward the middle to end of the mission around the moon. The lunar gravitational pull, can you help us understand how that works? And does that essentially mean that they don't need any power to come home? Yeah, that's exactly right. That's the beauty of the free return trajectory on a test mission. Essentially, you're firing the rocket on the TLI burn that was described. It will put you, it will leave, give you enough energy to leave Earth orbit, but also put you on a trajectory to come home. In theory, they don't have to fire their engine any longer and come back to Earth. Now, truthfully, there'll be some correction burns and some maneuvers along the way and some test activities. But by and large, the energy required to get back to the moon is, I mean, get back to Earth's surface safely is right at that TLI burn. Really, really adding to the factors of safety on a mission like this. What advice would you give to your colleagues at this juncture? Savor every moment. I mean, these are experienced folks. They know what it's all about, but you never know when it's your last space flight. And they're seeing some of the views that only a handful of people alive on Earth today have seen. And so their eyeballs, their pictures, their descriptions, their feelings are gonna be what we all hang on. I texted Reid Wiseman a couple of days ago and said, good luck, my friend, Godspeed. The world is watching with awe and excitement. And that's exactly how I feel. Do you hope this inspires the next generation? Oh, absolutely. There's some young elementary school kid out there that's gonna be, he or she's gonna be the first one to walk on Mars. And they'll have watched this today and be able to describe when they're walking on Mars, their feelings when they saw Reid and Victor and Christina and Jeremy leave the planet. Chris Cassidy, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much. Absolutely, thank you.

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