Still marveling over their moon mission, the Artemis II astronauts received a thunderous welcome home on Saturday from hundreds who took part in setting a record for deep space travel during the US space agency Nasa’s lunar comeback.
The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near Nasa’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control in Houston, flying in from San Diego, where they splashed down just offshore the evening before.
After a quick reunion with their spouses and children, commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen took the hangar stage, surrounded by space center workers and other invited guests.
“This was not easy,” an emotional Wiseman said. “Before you launch, it feels like it’s the greatest dream on Earth. And when you’re out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends. It’s a special thing to be a human, and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth.”
Added Glover: “I have not processed what we just did and I’m afraid to start even trying.”
Hansen said the four of them embodied love “and extracting joy out of that” as the four joined together to stand in a row, embracing one another. “When you look up here, you’re not looking at us. We are a mirror reflecting you. And if you like what you see, then just look a little deeper. This is you.”
On their record-breaking flyby, the astronauts reached a maximum 252,756 miles (406,771km) from Earth before hanging a U-turn behind the moon, eclipsing Apollo’s 13 distance record.
The mission also revealed a new side of our planet with an Earthset photo, showing our Blue Marble setting behind the gray, pockmarked moon. The image echoed the famous Earthrise shot from 1968 taken by the world’s first lunar visitors, Apollo 8.
“Honestly, what struck me wasn’t necessarily just Earth, it was all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbedly in the universe,” Koch said. “Planet Earth you are a crew.”
Prior to their remarks, the crew was introduced by Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman, among the first to greet them aboard the recovery ship on Friday.
“Ladies and gentlemen, your Artemis II crew,” Isaacman said to a standing ovation.
The jubilant crowd included flight directors and the launch director, Orion capsule and exploration system managers, high-ranking military officers, members of Congress, the space agency’s entire blue-suited astronaut corps and even retired ones, and more.
Their homecoming was poignant: They returned to Nasa’s Houston base on the 56th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13, whose “Houston, we’ve had a problem” refrain turned a near-disaster into triumph.
During Artemis II’s nearly 10-day mission, the astronauts voyaged deeper into space than the moon explorers of decades past and captured views of the lunar far side never witnessed before by human eyes. A total solar eclipse added to the cosmic wonder.
Despite the accomplishments, Artemis II astronauts had to contend with a more mundane problem – a malfunctioning space toilet. Nasa promised a design fix before longer moon-landing missions.
Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen were the first humans to fly to the moon since Apollo 17 closed out Nasa’s first exploration era in 1972. Twenty-four astronauts flew to the moon during Apollo, including 12 moonwalkers.
Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell – who also flew on Apollo 8 – cheered the Artemis II crew on in a wake-up message recorded before he died the previous summer.
It was crucial for Nasa that Artemis II go well. The space agency is already preparing for next year’s Artemis III, which will see a new crew practice docking its capsule with a lunar lander in orbit around Earth. That will set the stage for the all-important Artemis IV moon landing in 2028, when two astronauts attempt a touchdown near the lunar south pole.
Calling it “mission complete” only after being reunited with his two daughters, Wiseman issued a rallying cry to the rows of blue-flight-suited astronauts at Saturday’s celebration.
Pointing at them, Wiseman said: “It is time to go and be ready – because it takes courage. It takes determination, and you all are freaking going and we are going to be standing there supporting you every single step of the way in every possible way possible.”
