The four astronauts aboard Artemis II spoke with reporters from orbit for the first time since their lunar flyby, which carried them farther from Earth than any humans in more than half a century.
Having become the first people to directly view the Moon’s far side, the crew described high emotions as they prepared to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and splash down Friday in the Pacific Ocean off California.
Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman said the experience had overwhelmed them. ‘Human minds should not go through what these just went through,’ he said, adding that the crew would need time to reflect, journal and absorb what they had seen. He described seeing a solar eclipse from space as especially powerful: ‘I’m actually in chills right now just thinking about it, my palms are sweating.’
Canadian mission specialist Jeremy Hansen said passing behind the Moon revealed sights he had ‘never even imagined’ and underscored how fragile Earth appears when viewed from the void of space.
On Monday the Orion spacecraft reached about 252,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Earth, surpassing a 56-year-old record set by Apollo 13.
Mission pilot Victor Glover said he had not yet fully processed the journey and was turning his attention to the return. ‘There’s so many more pictures, so many more stories … We’ve still got two more days, and riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well,’ he said. During reentry, Orion will hit speeds up to 23,839 mph (38,365 kph) and face intense heating from atmospheric friction. Glover noted he had been thinking about entry since being assigned to the mission on April 3, 2023.
Mission specialist Christina Koch, who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, said the crew had forged a deep camaraderie. She said she would miss the close teamwork and common purpose they shared across hundreds of thousands of miles, and stressed that occasional discomfort is part of pushing human exploration: ‘We can’t explore deeper unless we are doing a few things that are inconvenient, unless we’re making a few sacrifices, unless we’re taking a few risks.’
Artemis II is the first flight in a multibillion-dollar campaign aimed at returning humans to the lunar surface by 2028 and eventually establishing a U.S. presence on the Moon as a stepping stone toward crewed missions to Mars.
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher