The four Artemis astronauts have been met with cheers and a standing ovation in Houston during a special reception following their dramatic return to Earth today
The four astronauts during a reception in Houston(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Astronaut Reid Wiseman says it is a “special thing to be on planet Earth” and that the Artemis crew are now “bonded for life”.
Artemis II’s astronauts closed out humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century with a Pacific splashdown on Friday.
It was a dramatic grand finale to a mission that revealed not only swaths of the lunar far side never seen before by human eyes, but a total solar eclipse and a parade of planets, most notably our own shimmering Earth against the endless black void of space.
They received a standing ovation and cheers as they walked out, welcomed by NASA chief Jared Isaacman, in Houston.
Commander Reid Wiseman started by telling the crowd: “I have no idea what to say” before telling his three crewmates “we are bonded for life”. He continued: “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.”
The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control, flying in from San Diego where they splashed down just offshore the evening before.
After a quick reunion with their spouses and children, the astronauts took the hangar stage, surrounded by space centre workers and other invited guests.
Texas congressman Michael Cloud says how the success of the Artemis mission is something now to be built on. “Thank you for all you’ve done to inspire us,” he told the four Artemis 2 astronauts.
“Us as a nation desperately needed this, the world needed this… You’ve inspired us and you’ve given us something we can build upon for the future.”
Astronaut Victor Glover then spoke saying: “The gratitude of seeing what we saw, doing what we did and being who I was with, it’s too big,” and he also thanked their families for their support.
Christina Koch told how the trip began 10 days ago “with our mission manager knocking on my door,” and she went on to say “it ended last night when my nurse on the ship put me to bed and said, ‘Ma’am, can I get a hug?’ A lot has happened between those two moments but the start and the end were human events on Earth.”
Jeremy Hansen said he wanted to share the human experiences they had, starting with “gratitude” for his family, for NASA and the Canadian space agency, as well as the “bravery and courage” of everyone involved in the mission.
The crowd included NASA Administrator Isaacman, flight directors and the launch director, Orion capsule and exploration system managers, high-ranking military officers, the space agency’s entire blue-suited astronaut corps and even retired ones, and more.
Wiseman and his U.S.-Canadian crew’s homecoming was poignant: They returned to their Houston home 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, they 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.
On their record-breaking flyby, the astronauts reached a maximum 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers) 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.
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 last 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.
