'Riding a Fireball Through the Atmosphere Is Profound'

Drawing ever closer to Earth, the Artemis II astronauts tidied up their lunar cruiser for its upcoming "fireball" return and reflected on their historic journey around the moon, describing it as surreal and profound. As the next-to-last day of their flight dawned Thursday, humanity's first lunar explorers in more than half a century were less than 150,000 miles from home with the odometer clicking down, the AP reports. NASA said they began their day with "Lonesome Drifter" by Charley Crockett.

• "We have to get back. There's so much data that you've seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us. There are so many more pictures, so many more stories," said pilot Victor Glover, adding that "riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well."

• Being cut off from all of humanity for nearly an hour while behind the moon was especially "surreal," according to commander Reid Wiseman. "There's a lot that our brains have to process ... and it is a true gift," Wiseman said late Wednesday during the crew's first news conference since before liftoff.
• While out of contact behind the moon Monday, Wiseman, Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen became the most distant humans ever, clocking in at a record 252,756 miles from Earth before heading back. As they emerged from behind the moon, they experienced a wondrous total solar eclipse as the orb blocked the sun from their perspective.
• The crew received a call late Wednesday from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the CBC reports. "The example that you're showing of how to reach literally for the stars—reach for the moon" is "hugely inspiring," he said. He invited the crew to visit Canada after the mission and joked about the Nutella jar seen floating through the spacecraft on Monday. "A lot of Canadians just want one point of reassurance—that the preference is for maple syrup over Nutella on your pancakes," Carney said.

• Friday's reentry and Pacific splashdown off the coast of San Diego—as dynamic and dangerous as liftoff—now topped everyone's minds. The recovery ship, USS John P. Murtha, is already at sea, with a squadron of military planes and helicopters poised to join the operation. NASA splashdown will happen around 8:07pm Eastern.
• It's the first time that NASA and the Defense Department have teamed up for a lunar crew's reentry since Apollo 17 in 1972. Their Orion capsule will come screaming back, hitting the atmosphere at a predicted 34,965 feet—or 23,840 mph—not a record but still mind-bogglingly fast.
• Mission Control will be paying close attention to how the capsule's heat shield holds up. During the only other Orion test flight to the moon, in 2022 without a crew, the heat shield suffered considerably more damage than expected from the 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit of reentry.
• Instead of replacing Artemis II's heat shield, which would have forced another lengthy delay, NASA tweaked the capsule's descent through the atmosphere to reduce the blisteringly hot exposure. Next year's Artemis III and beyond will fly with redesigned heat shields.
• NASA officials have been loath to provide their risk assessment numbers for the nearly 10-day mission, acknowledging launch and entry as the biggest threats. "We're down to the wire now," said NASA's Lakiesha Hawkins. "We're down to the end of the mission, and obviously getting the crew back home and getting them landed safely, is a significant part of the risk that's still in front of us."