NASA’s Artemis II astronauts crush viral health problem: Watch

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The 4 astronauts chosen for the 2026 Artemis II mission across the moon not too long ago tried the “Pete and Bobby Challenge.”

Before they head on a mission circling the moon, NASA’s Artemis II astronauts are spending a while getting in form.

The crew of the primary U.S. human moon mission in additional than 5 many years not too long ago took on a viral health problem popularized by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The goal is straightforward to explain, if maybe harder to truly execute: 100 pushups and 50 pullups inside 10 minutes.

But the feat was apparently no match for the 4 U.S. spacefarers, who shared a video of their accomplishment on social media website X.

Here’s what to know in regards to the “Pete and Bobby” problem, in addition to the Artemis II astronauts.

Who are the Artemis II astronauts?

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, together with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, have been chosen because the crew for Artemis II. Koch and Glover characterize the first lady and first African American, respectively, assigned to a NASA lunar mission.

What is the ‘Pete and Bobby Challenge?’

The “Pete and Bobby Challenge” is straightforward: 100 pushups and 50 pullups in underneath 10 minutes, in any order you deem finest.

The health problem is called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who first tried and accomplished the routine in an Aug. 18 YouTube video filmed on the Pentagon. The pair teamed as much as popularize the problem at a time that President Donald Trump is planning to bring back the presidential fitness test for America’s youth.

“It’s all about making America healthy again,” Hegseth stated within the video, echoing the favored motion related to Kennedy often known as MAHA.

“Pete and I are going to do our part to encourage American youth to do this challenge,” Kennedy added.

Toward the top of the video, Kennedy challenged NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy, additionally the transportation secretary, to finish the problem. It was Duffy who then ultimately roped within the Artemis II astronauts.

“Secretary Duffy, your Artemis II crew accepts the challenge,” Wiseman, the commander of Artemis II, stated firstly of the Aug. 29 video posted to X.

Video reveals Artemis II astronauts taking up viral health problem

The one-minute video reveals Wiseman, Koch, Glover and Hansen exhaustively working their method via a sequence of pushups and pullups earlier than rising on the finish sweaty and triumphant.

The astronauts then hold the momentum rolling by difficult just a few fellow astronauts: Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke – the three Americans aboard the International Space Station.

What is Artemis II, NASA’s lunar marketing campaign?

NASA’s Artemis program is the company’s formidable marketing campaign to return Americans to the floor of the moon for the primary time in additional than 50 years. The final U.S. astronaut to land on the moon was on Dec. 19, 1972, throughout NASA’s Apollo 17 mission.

Artemis I launched Nov. 16, 2022, from the Kennedy Space Center, sending the Orion capsule on a moon orbiting mission with no crew within the first check of the car. The Orion splashed down Dec. 11, 2022, within the Pacific Ocean.

In the years forward, NASA’s Artemis marketing campaign goals to determine a lunar settlement on the south pole, the place water ice regarded as considerable within the area may be extracted and used for consuming, respiratory and as a supply of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket gas.

The settlement – which incorporates plans for a nuclear reactor – would function a base of operations to make additional crewed house missions, together with journeys to Mars, doable.

As of now, the Artemis II mission will launch no later than April 2026, taking the 4 astronauts on a 10-day journey circumnavigating – however not touchdown on – the moon. That mission will likely be adopted no sooner than 2027 by Artemis III, which can return astronauts to the floor of the moon itself.

Both missions will get off the bottom from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, a part of the state’s Space Coast close to Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com