Last week the stars aligned in a most quizzical way: April Fools Day, incoming full Moon, and a Crayon-shaped rocket ship named Artemis II (with an Orion capsule head) lifted off for ten days, holding four astronauts in a quest to boomerang around the Moon. A first.

Curiously, a suicide-mission, sci-fi film entitled Project Hail Mary had already taken off 11 days before nationwide on movie screens, breaking box office records at the speed of sound its premise was to save the Earth via middle school science teacher-turned-astronaut Ryan Gosling and a macadam-clad E.T. named Rocky from a dying Sun. The film has also helped resuscitate a dwindling population of ticket-goers hoping for a feel-good escape-hatch picture in the midst of darkening times and popcorn machines.

Are the scenarios all that different? Here, a compare and contrast of the sci-fi vs. sci-fact missions that captured our attention last week. Neither missions are yet to be completed.

Josh Valcarcel/NASA via AP; Jonathan Olley/Amazon

Courtesy

Getty Images (3); Courtesy (2)

Getty Images (2)

Courtesy of NASA; Jonathan Olley/Amazon This story appeared in the April 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.