Marcia Dunn
Houston: Still marvelling over their moon mission, the Artemis II astronauts received a thunderous welcome home on Saturday (Sunday AEST) from hundreds who took part in NASA’s lunar comeback that set a record for deep space travel.
The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Centre 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, commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen took the hangar stage, surrounded by space centre workers and other invited guests. They were introduced by NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, who was among the first to greet them aboard the recovery ship on Friday (Saturday AEST).
“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 Apollo 13’s launch, whose “Houston, we’ve had a problem” refrain turned a near-disaster into a triumph.
“I have absolutely no idea what to say,” said Wiseman, triggering laughter from the audience.
“Twenty hours ago, the Earth was that big out the window,” he said, using his hands to suggest the size of a basketball, “and we were doing Mach 39. And here we are back at Ellington, at home.”
Wiseman said the mission was “the most special thing I ever went through in my life”.
“This was not easy,” he added. “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.”
Pilot Victor Glover said: “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 they joined 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.”
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.
‘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.’
Christina Koch, Artemis II astronaut
On their record-breaking flyby, the astronauts reached a maximum 406,771 kilometres 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 grey, pockmarked moon. The image echoed the famous Earthrise shot from 1968 taken by the world’s first lunar visitors on 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.”
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 wrapped up NASA’s first lunar exploration era in 1972. Twenty-four astronauts flew to the moon during Apollo, and 12 walked on the lunar surface.
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 went well. The space agency is already preparing for next year’s Artemis III mission, 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.
“The long wait is over. After a brief 53-year intermission, the show goes on,” Isaacman said.
