NASA’s Artemis II astronauts splashed back down to Earth less than a week ago, and already, the four crew members are reflecting on the magnitude of their achievement—the first human mission to the moon in more than 50 years.
“We’re just going to start by thanking the world,” said mission commander Reid Wiseman at a press conference on Thursday. “When we came home, we were shocked at the global outpouring of support, of pride, of ownership of this mission.”
Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen made a 10-day journey around the moon and back that saw them go farther from Earth than any human had gone before. The mission, Artemis II, was a test flight of the space agency’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule. Over the course of their journey, the astronauts trialed the capsule’s manual piloting abilities and other capacity for future Artemis missions, including Artemis III, an orbital crewed test that is planned for next year.
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Their flight was a resounding success for NASA, but it wasn’t without challenges either, Wiseman said. “When you look down at your display, and you see 212,000 miles, and the miles are increasing, I mean that your awareness is heightened the whole time,” he noted.
Among the major issues that arose involved components of the mission’s milestone-making toilet: its vent lines didn’t work as planned, though the toilet “worked great,” Wiseman said. And the smoke detector went off on the second to last day of the mission—which triggered an automated process to shut down ventilation that was “tense,” he said.
“You want to get somebody’s attention really quick, make the fire alarm go off in your spacecraft when you’re still 80,000 miles from home,” Wiseman added. Mission pilot Glover stressed that throughout their work on the mission, the crew had mental health support on hand. Aside from those issues, Wiseman said, a likely needed improvement would be to rearrange the cabin to make it easier to do daily tasks such as getting lunch.
Since they’ve been back on Earth, the astronauts have had very little respite. They’ve been doing medical and physical tests, taking part in science analysis and debriefing with the myriad NASA teams who worked on Artemis II and who are looking forward to Artemis III and future moon missions.
Mission specialist Koch said that, since being back on Earth, she has been moved to see how much the flight touched so many people across the world. “In the beginning, three years ago, we were being celebrated for something that we hadn't done,” she said, referring to the announcement of the Artemis II crew in 2023. “And having put in the work and having seen our team's successes, I think we’re ready to share in that inspiration and to celebrate it.”
“We wanted to go out and try to do something that would bring the world together, to unite the world,” Wiseman said.