Artemis II makes space history

0:00Hello there and welcome to news out from the BBC World Service. I'm Sean Lay and we're coming to you live from the BBC Studios in London. There are two moments of significance for the crew of the Artemis 2 space mission to experience today. Just over three hours ago the four astronauts boldly went where no human has been before deeper into space as their Orion capsule reached the far side of the moon. On April 15th 1970 during the Apollo 13 method mission three explorers set the record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from our home planet. At that time over 55 years ago, level, swigart and haze flew 248,655 statute miles away from Earth. Today for all humanity, you're pushing beyond that frontier out in space and the mission commander Reid Weisman spoke of that historic moment.

1:02We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear. But we most importantly choose this moment to challenge this generation in the next to make sure this record is not long lived. And just over two and a half hours from now when it's around 6.47 in the evening on the US East Coast, the familiar reassuring background chatter from ground control at Houston will abruptly cease. For 40 or 50 minutes they may have felt quite alone in the universe. At least they have each other should they wish to break that silence. In 1969 aboard the command module for the Apollo moon landing's Michael Collins did not have even that, with Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin making their giant leap for mankind on the lunar surface, both they and mission control out of contact. Collins described the experience in his 1974 memoir, Carrying the Fire at a loyal news hour listening to the United States kindly

2:05lends us his voice to read this excerpt. Are from feeling lonely or abandoned, I feel very much a part of what is taking place on the lunar surface. I know that I would be a liar or a fool if I said that I have the best of the three Apollo 11 seats, but I can say with truth and equanimity that I am perfectly satisfied with the one I have. This venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two. I don't mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon. I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon and one plus God knows what on this side. The words of Michael Collins. Well, when we spoke to Kevin Fong, a medical doctor, broad

3:07caster, who used to work with NASA's human space flight program in Houston, we tore him away from the live coverage of the cruise journey so he could explain the significance of the moment to use our listeners. Yes, I really did have to tear myself away from it. There is so much going on there at the moment. What a beautiful extract from carrying the fire. We interviewed Michael Collins, Andrew Luck Baker and I when we made 30 minutes of the moon. He is by far and away the best writer of the Apollo astronauts and really so emotionally in touch with it all. There is certainly another book to be written in there after this mission. What is the significance of what is being achieved so far? Oh, gosh. There is so much here. This crew is now further from the earth than any group of humans in history, including the Apollo 13 crew in 1970. Who, when they went round the back of the moon, it was by obligation because they are trying to get home after their massive failures. That was a massive, massive rescue mission.

4:08This is very different there, out there as far away as they can be and having the opportunity to look at the moon as an object of scientific fascination. Right now it is wonderful actually because you can hear them. If you are listening to the string, you can hear them talking to mission control. But very unusually, they are not talking to the so-called capcom. Usually capcom is the capsule communicator. The only person ever allowed to talk to the crew. But right now they are talking to the science desk and the science desk are reading up to them and asking them to look at stuff and describe it for them. This is a real voyage of exploration. The observational data from this will be important even though there is no moon land involved this time. Yes, so this is a preparatory mission. This is first and foremost a test pilot operation. This is them shaking down the vehicle, making sure it can do what they think it can do and carrying a crew as far as they have taken it. That is underlined by the fact that you have three no-few of them, three test pilots on board in

5:11Vick Glover, Reed Wiseman and Jeremy Hanson. You have a flight engineer and electrical engineer in Christina Cook. All of them are testing the vehicle out. What this will do is pave the way towards a much wider, much deeper program of exploration in years to come. What they can see of the moon now, I think, will help them better understand what they should be seeing when they return. You have to remember that when Armstrong and Audren went looking at the surface features, being able to call them out, being able to know when they arrived, helped them understand whether or not they were moving too fast or too slow and what if anything they needed to do about that. All of these observations will help that. What about that period of silence? The launch team say that they did a lot of preparation with the crew, taking them to isolated locations, underground, above ground, all around the world to prepare them for this experience, this potential sense of being isolated and alone when you don't even have that reassurance of the live feed coming

6:13to you. It is hard to know how one would prepare themselves psychologically, but presumably psychological preparation is as important for astronauts as the physical reality of dealing with keeping this operation going and ensuring that all the different tests and data are achieved. Make names take their selected to be psychologically resilient people and then they've trained together as a crew and the resilience lies between them as a crew, as much as it lies within them as personalities. This is a blackout period of about 50 minutes, 50 minutes and so it's a considerable time and you heard earlier in your bulletin, Michael Collins having this almost existential musing about that period, but they've got each other and I suspect, I don't know, I suspect that will be pleased at the break. I felt like no one can get it. It's like that feeling you get when you get on the train, you can't really get any wife. No one can really try and ring you. It's

7:16kind of like that, I think. Well, thank goodness we were able to reach him. That's Kevin Fongy used to work with NASA's Human Space Flight Program in Houston. He also presents the 16 Sunset Podcast about the first Space Shuttle mission. Now, US President Donald Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, spent Monday at the White House hosting the annual Easter Egg Hunt for Children. Following the weekend drama of the rescue of an American Air Force crew member, shot down over Iran and the looming deadline imposed by Mr. Trump had extended by him again until tomorrow night. The war in the Gulf could not be overshadowed by these festivities, the presence of someone dressed as the Easter Bunny or even by the band.

8:20Well, President Trump was responding to reporter questions on a suggested that Pakistan has mediated put full proposals to the two sides in the war. Mr. Trump said those in charge in Tehran. Now, we're more intelligent and not as radicalized as their predecessors, but later Tehran said it rejected a ceasefire and insists on the need for a definitive end of the conflict. That is according to a statement put out by the news agency, the IMNA, in Tehran. The past couple of hours, Mr. Trump has spoken at the White House, no backing band this time, describing how the pilot downed over the weekend was able to get himself in a position to be rescued. Despite the peril, the officer followed his training and climbed into the treacherous mountain terrain and started climbing toward a higher altitude, something they were trained to do in order to evade capture. They want to always go as far away from the site of the shootdown.

9:21They want to go as far away because they all head right to that site. You want to be as far away as you can. And he was injured and he was an amazing, amazing thing. He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds and contacted American forces to transmit his location. They have a very sophisticated beaper-type apparatus that is on them at all times. President Trump speaking earlier on Monday while I corresponded in Washington DC as Iony Wells, I asked her whether with lots of detail on the rescue anything had been said of notes about a possible ceasefire. Donald Trump was asked whether he would consider ending the conflict if there was some kind of opening of the straight of Hormuz. Now in response, Donald Trump essentially said that it would be up to him whether a deal is acceptable or not. He said the deal with Iran has to be acceptable to me. And that part of any deal with Iran is going to be that the US wants

10:26free traffic of oil through the straight of Hormuz. Now Iran has rejected the idea of a temporary ceasefire because they want a longer term commitment to an end of hostilities. They don't want essentially to negotiate while there is still a threat of them being under attack. But interestingly, Donald Trump did say that essentially he would want the US to be charging vessels to go through the straight of Hormuz rather than Iran, something which Iran has currently been doing while the straight has been closed. We had this blood and thunder remarked from the President when he said during that news conference, if Iran doesn't meet the deadline, he set for midnight tomorrow night. There would be the case that every power planted Iran would be out of business burning, exploding never to be used again and threatening the same for the country's bridges. This is a very strong threat. But is it something that is really thought to be what Washington is trying to achieve at the moment? Is there any suggestion that this is part of rhetorical cover for some kind

11:28of progress on talks between the two sides? It's really hard to tell, Sean, because we've heard these threats repeated by the Trump administration and by Donald Trump himself repeatedly in the last couple of days. And at times, he has given these deadlines and then shifted them. So it's not really clear at this stage whether this one is now for real. Certainly the rhetoric has been incredibly strong talking about every bridge in Iran being decimated by 12 tomorrow night, giving this window essentially of 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Iran time, saying that this will be a point where everything is burning, exploding, power plants are destroyed, saying that the country could be taken out in one night and that might be tomorrow night. Now, certainly I think this is designed to essentially nudge Iran pretty swiftly into accepting a deal. But at the moment, it seems like the two sides are still very far apart. He was interestingly asked as well about what the Iranians might make of the US wanting to blow up their energy infrastructure cut off their power. He suggested that he believe the Iranians would support that, saying that Iranians have told the US to keep

12:32bombing bombs that are dropping near their homes. There are concerns, though, that targeting civilian infrastructure like this could potentially constitute a war crime. That's our correspondent in the United States. I knew I was talking to me a little earlier about President Trump's news conference on Monday. And in a minister's house time, we're going to hear from some analysis from Washington. Stay with us. Coming up in New South in five minutes time. A previously lost collection of songs from the Holocaust recorded and heard for the first time in more than 80 years. We'll be talking to the man who discovered and has sung them. Our headlines this hour, humanity has traveled deeper into space than ever before as the

13:36estimates on the Artemis 2 mission reached the far side of the moon. President Trump has claimed Iranians want the US to bomb their country and has repeated his threat to destroy civilian infrastructure. And a case that's triggered outrage across India. Nine police officers have been sentenced to death for fatal assaulting and father and son in their custody. This is Sean Lay with news out coming to life in the BBC studios in London. Let's say with President Trump's news conference about the rescue operation and his earlier comments on Pakistan's mediation efforts between Washington and Tehran. I've been talking to Kirsten Fontenrose, senior fellow at the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, DC. She was senior director for the Gulf at the US National Security Council in the first Trump administration. And I asked Kirsten Fontenrose whether President Trump's bluster masks serious negotiations between the US and Iran. He's hinted in the Q&A he gave today that there are negotiations going on but it doesn't sound

14:40like they're actually with the regime members who are calling the shots right now. So those would be with someone perhaps within the regime still but at a different level and a different part of government perhaps who does not have the safety right now to publicly make themselves known. Which is fine. I mean that would be almost ideal to be honest. But the current regime, these remnants of the regime that are left are not saying that they are the ones engaged in talks and it's our understanding that they intend to blow this timeline frankly. They rejected the US 15 points. They're insisting on their five. So the two sides are talking past each other. But the ball is in their court. They have until 8 p.m. Tuesday night to open the streets. We just aren't seeing indications that they're willing to do that even with this proposal from Pakistan on the table. Is that bringmanship? Do you think or are they looking at this and going? We'll look, he's moved the deadline on previous occasions. He might do it again. And even if we were to kind of agree to something that looked like progress, he's pulled the rug from under us before by going

15:43ahead with operations when we were talking. So why would we trust him a third time? I think that's exactly what they're likely thinking. And they really right now perceive that they will get a better deal if they keep fighting because they assume that the next phase in US war planning, this is not necessarily accurate. But they assume that it must include, due to the talk about it, putting the US into a ground war, dragging the US into territory with boots on the ground, which they think they understand would infuriate American voters and that President Trump will be forced to make concessions to get out quickly. So they see that actually as being in their favor if they can force him to continue to stay engaged, but limit the option he has for getting further in terms of his achievements without going in on the ground. I don't think that is actually how the US military sees this progressing. So I don't think Iran's analysis there is accurate, but I do think that's what's leading to this brinkmanship. Given that everything now seems to hinge on the strait of humours, I wonder was that was that problem discussed? Would people have

16:46been aware of that potential problem? The risk that Iran might see this as one of the weapons that it could deploy? 100%. Every conversation about anything with Iran, one of the first things considered is that they would try to use this as a lever. And if not them, one of their proxies, this is always considered. One thing to remember though is that the US is not as reliant for any foundation of our economy on what flows through Hormuz's other countries are and that there was an assumption that those who are either chipping through the strait or have economies that are more dependent on it would certainly prevent that from happening or place diplomatic pressure even if not military, although we're seeing that discussed. On Iran to keep that strait open for the good of the rest of the world, I think Iran's willingness to kind of take everyone down with them is a sign of where they think the sort of existential threat they're perceiving here. Kirsten Fontenrow, senior director for the Gulf in the US National Security Council,

17:46when Donald Trump first served as US President. Now from the period of the Holocaust, a story of survival from that darkest of chapters in Union history when the Nazi Germany tried to wipe Jews from the face of the earth and their history along with them. The survival is that of a manuscript and anthology of songs in Yiddish performed during that genocide, rediscovered and about to be published in English for the first time. Joseph Tolts, a Jewish music researcher at the University of Sydney, in Australia, found translated and is now performing these songs. He's been speaking two news hours, Tim Franks. In 2013, the grandmother of a friend of mine passed away. She was a Polish Jew living in Australia and she had hidden her identity throughout the war. While Daughter was cleaning out the apartment,

18:51a tiny little song book fell out of the collection on the bookshelf. The daughter didn't know what it was. I sent a photo to the Holocaust Museum in Washington where it had been a research fellow and the music curator told me that it was the first collection of Holocaust songs that had been published in 1945 in Bucharest in Romania and only a handful of these still existed. When you say Holocaust songs, what do you mean? These were songs composed in Yiddish or written in Yiddish, rather, about what Jews were experiencing during the catastrophe of the Holocaust. Correct. So songs written in camps and in ghettos and in hiding, the man who compiled the songs, Yehuda Isman, he categorized them into three sections, despair, hope, and then battle and victory. But within those sort of categories, there are very, very wide ranges of emotions. A really good

19:52example is the song Shoton's that was composed by a young woman called Fager Gourman. Shoton's means shadows. The song is not in any other collection and we believe that the shadows that she's referring to are the shadow of the passing of her husband who was taken away for forced labour and never returned, also the terrible tragedy where she had to leave her infant child on the doorstep of non-Jewish friends, and also the shadows of all of the people that she witnessed being taken to the Sabibor camp when she was working on the railways. That song, Shadows by Fager Gourman, you mentioned there are other flavours to this anthology,

21:01so not just despair but also hope or resolve, anyway, determination. Yeah, so the song Ponar, which is also known as Stila Stila, was composed by a 12-year-old musician. He was the only surviving composer that we were able to talk to from the book, but this is the most beautiful song. It's about the history of the Vilnigetto and what was happening when the people were being taken to the Ponari forest and shot on mass, but it has like a whisper of hope, you know, it's quite a beautiful song. Joseph, it's I know that you were an academic, but there must have been something that touched

22:01you in a deeper way than mere intellectual discovery about performing, recording these songs as well. Yes, I'm not going to lie, it was also very emotionally draining. This is a very raw account, but I feel like I'm giving voice to the people who had contributed to this book. It's a lifetime piece of work for me. Yeah, Delita Pogrum, sung by Joseph Tots, accompanied on the accordion by Eddie Bronson. This is News Out from the BBC World Service. Do please, stay with us. Welcome back to News Out. Highly exposed to volatile fossil fuel prices and intensifying climate

23:04change, island nations are considering whether energy independence could be the answer to both. Advances in offshore wind technology are prompting communities from the channel islands in the Atlantic to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean to consider whether they can free themselves from dependence and even become electricity exporters. Tyler Dunn reports now from the island of Jersey just off the northwest coast of France. Type Jersey into a search engine and there's a good chance you'll see an image of what I'm walking around at the moment. Corby air lighthouse perched on jagged rocks at one end of a sweeping 8 kilometer long bay, but this view could one day look quite different because early proposals for an offshore wind farm would see dozens of turbines each reaching a maximum height similar to the Eiffel Tower, clustered in the sea about 15 kilometers southwestern. Away from the coastline in the island's capital St Helia, the logos of some of the world's biggest finance firms adorn the office buildings. I'm on my way to the Quinter

24:08surroundings of the Royal Square, the location of Jersey's Parliament, where I meet the island's Environment Minister Steve Loose. We think that we could return somewhere in the region of four times every pound we spend, looking 30, 40 years ahead, but we think we're going to invest 100 million pounds over that time. We would maybe get 405 underback. Not everyone is blown away by the potential of making more than half a billion dollars. Down the road in St Helia's harbour, local fishermen Steve and Vinie invites me on to his boat. It's a very worrying time because it seems that fishermen are being pushed to the side for big business and we don't feel that it's right. I mean there's certainly this other areas that wind farms could be put, whether it be a shore or further away from certainly our shores. And to be honest, don't be delighted to look at them. I've been in the offshore wind industry for about 18 years and I've been working across the world in an offshore wind. This is Mark Leiborne,

25:13his company, Diner Energy, is based in Jersey and wants to develop the island's offshore wind farm. There's a big long list of islands that are looking at this at different levels of maturity, so we've got the Channel Islands, Bermuda, Malta or some Mauritius, Sri Lanka as well. They need security not only from their actual supply of energy but the cost of that energy as well. Advocates for offshore wind point out that over the long term prices have been falling but that trend was well and truly bucked in 2023. Developers didn't place a single bid in an auction for projects held by the UK, a world leader in offshore wind because the price offered by the government to buy their energy was too low. Recent auctions in Germany and the Netherlands have also struggled to attract developers. Islands have been buffeted by the will of larger nations, almost as long as they've been buffeted by the wind. However, they can harness the latter to become more independent, grow their economies, cut their emissions, would append in part on them having the political will to take a risk and on a global industry

26:17outside their control. That's Tyler Dunn, Dunn. This is news out from the BBC World Service with me Sean Ley. Now let's return to the war against Iran being waged by the United States and Israel. Today's news conference in Washington was held to celebrate the success of the rescue operation this weekend for a crew member shot down over Iran. In just over 24 hours time President Trump's revised deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz expires Mr. Trump warned of the consequences if it doesn't do that. We have a plan because of the power of our military where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again. I mean complete

27:20demolition by 12 o'clock and it'll happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to. We don't want that to happen. Well in the last few minutes Iran's top joint military command has responded to those threats describing them as delusional. Who emerged is the already important American journalist, the author of the tire, the Ayatollah begs to differ, the paradox of modern Iran. I asked him whether the authorities in Iran think the President Trump is bluffing whether they're holding out for a better deal. I don't think they think he's bluffing but I definitely think that well I should say I believe that they are not intimidated by this threat. What we've seen in the past has been these big threats we're going to blow this up, we're going to do this and that unless Iran does this and then there's an extension because there's supposedly some talks going on or negotiations with mediators going on. But at the same time the U.S. and Israel are really pounding Iran

28:22already. It's not like they're not being pounded every day and they haven't given up. I mean just yesterday or last night I think it was Israel blew up or damaged, heavily damaged one of Iran's petrochemical plants. So this is happening, I mean the U.S blew up a bridge just a few days ago, one of the new projects and it hadn't even started being used by the Iranian people but an important bridge. So this is happening as they're making these as Trump anyway is making these new threats. So I mean it's not like they're not used to seeing being bombed every night. One of the people I speak to in Tehran which is not every day because of the internet shortages in Iran or cut-offs in Iran. People in Iran are saying that there's basically bombing every single night and so I think the regime believes that this is something they can withstand. If they're withstanding what is happening now they'll be able to withstand and retaliate

29:22in a big way. Any further damage. Who is calling the shots in Iran now? Because we had the president in some of his off-the-cuff remarks outside the White House earlier today saying well the current people who were talking to are kind of much more practical, much more sensible than the people who were in charge implying that as he put it somehow there has been some kind of regime change. Is that credible? No it's not credible at all. No the people in charge right now in Iran is very clear given that there's a war going on. It's the military and when I say the military the IRGC in this case the revolutionary guards more so than the army but it's not that the president of Iran doesn't have any say in the matter. It's not that the Speaker of Parliament who himself was a former IRGC general doesn't have a say in the matter but I think it's the military running thing in the military but people at the top of the military structure in Iran are actually more hard-line and less likely to do a deal with the US and the

30:23ones that the US and that were Israel have killed in the past so it's not credible at all that these are people that are blessed hard-line or are easier to deal with than the previous set of people. I mean the people that the US is dealing with and this goes through the foreign minister who is from the more from the reform camp than he would be from the conservative. This is Mr. Araqchi. Yes and that's their contact. That's basically the person that messages are going to and then the messages get spread to the Supreme National Security Council which includes the IRGC and includes the president and everyone and then they make decisions like rejecting this new ceasefire proposal for example but if they were going to be more willing to do a deal with the US we'd see an indication by now it's almost six weeks into the war we're in the sixth week of the war and there's no indication whatsoever that the Iranians are willing to compromise at this point. In the last 30 seconds or so we've got is your instinct

31:27that this is going to drag on for weeks more with the Iranians resistant to making any deal if they can still hold out militarily and the Americans determined to see the straight up for most reopened somehow. My instinct would be that the Iranians can do that for a few more weeks not forever obviously because they if they keep getting bombed they can't do it forever my instinct is though the president Trump can't go for a few more weeks that he will have to wrap it up somehow and declare victory no matter what happens he's already indicated that well maybe we don't need the straight up or let the Europeans deal with it it's their problem so we're seeing that kind of language already coming from the White House so no my instinct would be that this can't go on much more than two or three more weeks. That was who unmatched Iranian-born American journalist the author of the Ayatollah Bakes Tadeffa the paradox of modern Iran to Ukraine now

32:33where theater audiences are being treated to a unique experience watching wounded army veterans who never acted before performing a famous Ukrainian adaptation adaptation of the Aeneid one of the Roman poet Virgil's epics the production which has already played to stand innovation in Kiev offers injured soldiers some in severe burns some amputees an opportunity not only to bond with one another but to discover hitherto hidden talents after the horrors of war our correspondent Paul Adams has been to watch members of the theater veterans in rehearsal on a key of stage figures emerge out of a smoky haze soldiers moving slowly bow down burdened thirsty exhausted fleeing war searching for a place of safety their injuries aren't immediately obvious but soon you see them

33:35the prosthetics the burned faces the stumps where hands should be the story is ancient Virgil's wandering Aeneas reimagined as a Kossak warrior by the Ukrainian poet Ivan Kotlyarevsky at the end of the 18th century but in this production there's never any doubt about where we are this is here this is now we join the cast for a midweek rehearsal theater of veterans is a remarkable organization giving soldiers who have experienced extreme physical and mental trauma a taste of life on the stage as an aid to recovery acting as therapy for each member of the cast it's intensely personal first of all is for rehabilitation for mind for soul for body Ivan Voinov was hit by a glide bomb in May 2024 near the city of Rovchansk close to the Russian border the explosion killed and wounded several of his colleagues Ivan lost his left leg below

34:38the knee he has two metal plates in his skull and a keen desire to see beyond his wounds when we show this show a lot of guys who in war right now they know after they injured it's not the end life keep going and they all I can do whatever they want I think that I'm changing myself because all of us changing because of something Inna Korolenko's wounds are less visible months of ferrying dead and wounded soldiers from the front line and an explosion in her vehicle which sent her to hospital for two months left her traumatized and alone this project was a very big chance for us to return to our life not to scared to say something to people about myself putting this inexperienced but enthusiastic cast

35:42through its paces is theater director Olga Semyoshkina she says it took time to coax the veterans out of themselves the guys and girls came to us very withdrawn we couldn't touch them it was too much for them to handle the first thing we did was establish contact then we started to trust each other and open up we joke a lot we crack some of the darkest jokes in rehearsals the show has already played to enthusiastic audiences now they're taking it on the road around Ukraine the veterans all play the same central character Enne a broken man going through hell looking for a place to settle somehow through theater they found it i still don't think that i'm actor but step by step we do something new in the theater life of Ukraine and to be a part of it

36:45it's a very cool another evasion for the key's theater of veterans the correspondent there was Paul let's return to our top story and the crew of the Orion capsule out in space no longer experiencing the gravitational pull from the earth now subject to the influence of the moon throughout their journey the four astronauts have a playlist songs they love songs their families want played one of them is a tune called in a day dream by the Freddy Jones band the 1993 track was played as a wake up on Friday to start the cruise third flight day as they travel towards the moon we made contact with the band and asked them about the song their singer Marty Lloyd a kindly sent us this vote voice note what a crazy experience Friday i was sitting with a friend and my phone started blowing up

37:51people asking me what all of this was about the astronauts on Artemis listening to our music as their wake up on Friday i literally looked at the calendar and thought we're a couple days removed from April fools so i thought well maybe someone is seeing an April fools joke somewhere or and then as the minutes rolled by and more texts were coming in and i someone sent a link and i looked at it and sure enough in a daydream was sent to the Artemis crew for their wake up music on Friday and i almost fell off my chair feel blessed and and honored and it was a shock to me as the writer of their song i can tell you there that's Marty Lloyd from the Freddy Jones band enjoying that

38:55lovely surprise just before the weekend that his song had been played in space we're going to hear from another musician who's had the same honor before the end of the program to do stay with us for that here on the BBC World Service we're going to disappear from about a minute or so we'll be back with you attend the hour stay with us a reminder of our top story on news how humanity has traveled deeper into space than ever before as the astronauts on the Artemis 2 mission traveled around the far side of the moon speaking here on news out dr Kevin Fong used to work with NASA's human space fright program in Houston explain the significance of the journey this crew is now further from the earth than any group of humans in history including the Apollo 13 crew but very unusually they're not

39:57talking to the so-called capcom usually capcom is the capsule communicator the only person ever allowed to talk to the crew but right now they're talking to the science desk and the science desk are reading up to them and asking them to look at stuff and describe it for them and so so this is a real voyage of exploration Kevin Fong I headlines this app president trump has claimed Iranians want viewers to bomb their country and has repeated his threat to destroy civilian infrastructure I'm Sean Lay and you're listening to news out coming to you live from the BBC in London autism is better known and diagnosed more than ever before but in some parts the world it still remains widely misunderstood in Malawi is tafrika where resources are scarce and support is limited the changes some parents face when caring for their autistic children are particularly demanding and lead them to face some terrible dilemmas Florence theory has this report from azusa in the north of Malawi five-year-old lecio runs into the kitchen with a yellow plastic plate

41:06in her hand her mother mother dishes up mid-stew and in sima it's a thick dough made from maize the commande de saba no sangarath britian is an amazing charm i feel so guilty that my child could have been dead right now and i'm ready to register spent her first year of life in and out of the hospital and then a two-year-old shows dark north with autism neighbors that are talking saying this child is troublesome why isn't she looking her inside the house register's behavior was all conjuring and the stigma mother faced from the community made life feel impossible i'm not into danger i felt crushed by the enormous weight because of her sickness i could not find any peace so i told myself that would be better if she died in a state of desperation mother planned to poison her child in the end in asaina would do i had made up my mind

42:07that she should die but my heart wouldn't let me do it i mean i did i won't need mother says she wants to share her story to help other parents in a community center elders from different states gather on green plastic chairs they are here for an autism awareness session run by St. John of court a local organization funded mainly by the catholic church that helps children with disabilities many here believe witchcraft is a root cause of autism it was a man a vika with a large god cross around his neck explains how people can be witch each other another man stands up claiming magic is sent to pregnant women this room is full of community leaders each and every one of them believes autism can be cured in one way or the other

43:10christopher mojone is the program manager at st. John of court we know they exist and we know that we are failing them because they're invisible it is a system that has to change malawi has two child development doctors for a population of over 22 million people and around three concerted psychiatrists like many other African countries the world autism does not exist in the national language Rachel dressing her blue and white checkered school uniform claps her hands in time to the music she's been going to school at st. John of court for a year she now takes medication and is learning to speak my child has changed now i didn't know i could be this happy because i adore my child mother and racial story is a positive one but with an estimated 60 million people worldwide

44:16on the autistic spectrum according to the world health organization there are many more living without any support that's florins theory reporting from malawi and florins is full bbci documentary life on the spectrum is available now on the bbc world service youtube page now let's return to our top story this hour we heard a few minutes ago from one of the musicians whose song has been played to the crew of the Artemis 2 mission now the song which woke the astronauts after their first sleep in space sleepy head is the track cover version sung by nick van hoffwagen a Dutch musician known

45:22profession is young and sick it features space a lot in his work a legacy of childhood enthusiasm for science fiction and space fact when we spoke nick told me first about sleepy head the song sleepy head was written by a bank or passion pit and released in 2008 about eight years ago i got approached by the label that put out the original to to see if i could do a cover version of it for their 10 year anniversary and so then i made this version that you that was heard in space no musician does ever thought i guess that their music will one day end up being played in space even in the space age given that the number of trips out is is relatively small do you know how it came about that your track was chosen as much as i know right now is that they've always had music on since the Apollo era to wake up the astronauts aboard their their crafts and the music gets chosen by the crew on board the ships we think that read wiseman

46:25the commander is the one that chose it i posted a video about it on tiktok and some people were just like oh i work i work in this on a space station i actually found out that read is the one that chose it so that's what i think what does it mean to you to know that your song woke up those four astronauts woke up read on his very first after his very first sleep in space it's it's honestly something i still don't really know how to believe it's just it's it's such a it feels like a dream you know like a music is has always been the most important part of my life and and a lot of people around me and so these moments that songs got chosen for those those mean more to you know this song will forever mean more to me and i assume more to the people aboard their craft too because that's such a wild moment obviously to be woken up in space what is it about the slowly you think that makes it so paling what was it appeal to you when you were asked to record it as a cover it's a beautiful song i love the original when i made my version i just i wanted to

47:31make it really sort of i wanted to be something a little little different from the original because i think you know a cover if it's a little too true to the original why bother yeah um then just let the original ring but um and so i wanted to make a sort of serene calm calming song for myself almost you know like i tend to be an anxious person and so in my music i try to give myself a little calm oasis almost and so that's kind of why it sounds the way it does that's the artist professionally known as young and sick nick fernhoff friggin talking to us about his version of the song sleep your head which was played at the request of the mission commander on their first awakening in space that's news out do join us again