Singapore singer Derrick Hoh sends daughter’s name to the moon on Artemis II mission
Lim Ruey Yan
The Straits Times
April 14, 2026
Local singer Derrick Hoh’s three-year-old daughter – or rather, her nickname Nori – was part of the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space mission Artemis II, which was a trip around the moon from April 1 to 10.
“I just sent my daughter’s name to the Moon and back on #ArtemisII… and I almost forgot about it,” the 40-year-old wrote on social media on April 13.
“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.”
In September 2025, NASA invited the public to join its Artemis II test flight by signing up to claim a spot before Jan 21 as part of its “Send Your Name with Artemis II” campaign.
Participants could download a boarding pass with their name on it as a collectable. Submitted names would be included on an SD card that would be inside the Orion spacecraft when the Artemis II mission launched.
Hoh’s wife, whose identity he has kept private, gave birth to the couple’s second daughter, nicknamed Shari, on Feb 27.
“And life became a blur of routines shifting, just trying to keep up with everything,” he wrote. “Somewhere in all that… I forgot. Until yesterday.”
Hoh is an alumnus of local reality singing competition Project SuperStar in 2005, in which he placed third in the men’s category.
In August and September 2025, he acted in The Theatre Practice’s Mandopop musical Partial Eclipse Of The Heart, which also starred singers Joanna Dong, Ric Liu, Jean Seizure and Chriz Tong.
“We were in our Partial Eclipse group chat, and my castmates were sharing about Artemis II and how it connects to our musical,” Hoh wrote. “And suddenly, it hit me.”
He looked for Nori’s ticket and then started digging around online.
“It really happened,” Hoh wrote. “Her name was part of a digital payload on board Artemis II, stored on a tiny memory card, tucked inside a plush space mascot named Rise.”
The artiste said it meant “Nori Hoh” went on a space adventure, carried by Artemis II crew members and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
“It left Earth, travelled all the way to the Moon, went behind it… and came all the way back home,” Hoh wrote.
“For a brief moment, a part of her was out there. Farther than most of us will ever go. And now it’s back.”
The NASA website said it received more than 5.6 million submissions.
Hoh also said that he and Nori frequently read the British children’s book Guess How Much I Love You (1994) together, which has the iconic line, “I love you right up to the moon and back”.
“I used to say it as a feeling. Something you can’t measure,” he wrote. “But this time… a part of her actually made the trip. I really did that for her. And I almost missed it.”
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