Singapore singer Derrick Hoh sends daughter’s name on trip to the moon and back aboard Artemis II
His daughter's name, Nori Hoh, was one of over 5.6 million names from around the world that were submitted and stored on a memory card that flew aboard the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis II mission.
Derrick Hoh registered his daughter's name for Artemis II, a journey to the Moon and back in NASA's first crewed lunar fly-by in more than 50 years. (Photo: Instagram/derrickhoh)
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Singapore singer Derrick Hoh took the saying “I love you to the Moon and back” quite literally. Hoh sent his daughter’s name on a journey to the Moon and back as part of Artemis II, NASA's first crewed lunar fly-by in more than 50 years, from Apr 1 to 10.
In an Instagram post on Monday (Apr 13), Hoh wrote: “End of last year, knowing how much Nori loves space, I went to NASA’s website and registered her name for a mission after reading about it online. It felt like a small, quiet thing at the time.”
NASA said that more than 5.6 million names were submitted and stored on a memory card that flew aboard the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis II mission.
The card was placed in a stuffed animal named Rise, the mission’s mascot and official zero-gravity indicator which serves as a visual cue for weightlessness when the vessel enters microgravity.
In the post, Hoh shared a video of the crew placing the SD card into the stuffed animal before the flight. Astronaut and mission commander Reid Wiseman is heard saying, “Just that act of seeing that little memory card with everyone's names, everyone's hopes that are going on this journey with us. We always say we're going for all and by all, and zipping that little pocket on the bottom of Rise was kind of the moment that put it all together for me. We are going for all and by all. It’s time to fly. Cheers.”
Hoh, a contestant on reality singing competition Project SuperStar in 2005, said he had forgotten about the registration following the birth of his second child in late February, where “life became a blur of routines shifting, just trying to keep up with everything”.
He only recalled the submission after a recent conversation with castmates from the Mandopop musical Partial Eclipse Of The Heart: “We were in our Partial Eclipse group chat, and my castmates were sharing about Artemis II and how it connects to our musical. And suddenly, it hit me. I went to look for Nori’s ticket.”
After checking online, Hoh confirmed that his daughter’s name had been included in the mission.
“It left Earth, travelled all the way to the Moon, went behind it… and came all the way back home. For a brief moment, a part of her was out there. Farther than most of us will ever go. And now it’s back,” he wrote.
In the post, Hoh shared a photograph of the British children’s book Guess How Much I Love You, which he said he and his daughter read “all the time”, reading a specific line to her as he tucked her into bed, “I love you right up to the Moon and back.”
“I used to say it as a feeling. Something you can’t measure. But this time… a part of her actually made the trip. I really did that for her,” Hoh added.
Artemis II carried four astronauts – Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – on a 10-day journey from Apr 1 to 10 that took them around the far side of the Moon and back to Earth.
