NASA's Apollo moonshots are a tough act to follow, even after all this time. As four astronauts get set to blast off on humanity's first trip to the moon in more than half a century, comparisons between Apollo and NASA's new Artemis program are inevitable. Artemis reflects more of society, with a woman, person of color and Canadian rocketing away from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. But they won't orbit the moon like the world's first lunar visitors did on Apollo 8 back in 1968. Instead, they'll play it safe and zip around the moon in an out-and-back slingshot like Apollo 13.

The four astronauts making NASA's next lunar leap bear little resemblance to the Apollo era. The Americans who blazed the trail to the moon more than half a century ago were white men chosen for their military test pilot experience. The Artemis crew includes a woman, a person of color and a Canadian. None of them were alive during NASA's Apollo program that sent 24 astronauts to the moon. They won't land on the moon this time or even orbit it. But the out-and-back journey will take them thousands of miles farther from Earth than the Apollo astronauts ventured.