Kids say the darndest things, as we saw when NASA’s Artemis II mission blasted off this week for the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years.
CNN was interviewing a young boy at Kennedy Space Center, who was sporting a NASA baseball cap, and the network got more than it bargained for after asking the excited kid about the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.
“Why do you want to be here? Why do you love being a part of history?” the reporter asked the boy.
Without missing a beat, the boy offered this unfiltered gem, “We’re going back to the f*cking moon, that’s why!”
Why are you here?
“We’re going back to the fucking moon, that’s why.”
The kids are ok. pic.twitter.com/ESENXvQbDg
— Sarah (gif/jif) (@mamaswati) April 1, 2026
How’s that for raw excitement? And what’s not to be excited about?
“Artemis II is the start of something bigger than any one mission. It marks our return to the Moon, not just to visit, but to eventually stay on our Moon Base, and lays the foundation for the next giant leaps ahead.” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on the day of the launch.
Turns out, space kid Hilt Boling knows a thing or two about the mission, as seen below during an appearance on News Nation’s “Katie Pavlich Tonight.”
Guess who’s on @KatiePavlichNN tonight?! Space kid Hilt Boling! He’s here to teach us a few things about the Artemis II mission to the “freaking moon.” Tune in at 10 pm on NewsNation 🚀 🌕 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/hjLSJX2NtK
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) April 3, 2026
One thing is for sure, potty mouth aside, the young man’s unbridled enthusiasm took social media by storm — hell, even the White House got in on the excitement.
Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story, as seen on X:
I don’t know if you caught the news clip but this kid is America! 😉 https://t.co/4kTnDJS7Ev
— Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) April 2, 2026
That intro from @CNN to boot – the reason the kiddo answered like that to the STUPID CNN guy question ‼️ pic.twitter.com/JdTudultAL
— Florin (@tifache) April 2, 2026
America is bad ass again!
— Michael Taylor (@Mketaylor) April 3, 2026
— Red-Team-Go (@FaithFlag123) April 2, 2026
Legend pic.twitter.com/iz9S7eric9
— Steven 🇺🇸 (@FaceplantSteven) April 2, 2026
It’s so good to see that time passes, but people stay the same-and there is still hope for the future.😁 pic.twitter.com/HFQUrjANFH
— Context 360 (@MMuckurty) April 2, 2026
Authentic Excitement During Artemis 11 Launch 🚀
🔻To The Moon pic.twitter.com/iMGztdzw4a— Toni Young (@moosiewa_tusi) April 2, 2026
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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