Still marveling over their moon mission, the Artemis II astronauts received a thunderous welcome home Saturday 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 Center and Mission Control in Texas, flying in from San Diego, where they splashed down just offshore the evening before, the AP reports. After a quick reunion with their spouses and children, the astronauts took the hangar stage, surrounded by space center workers and other guests. "Welcome home Artemis II," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced. "We are bonded forever," Cmdr. Reid Wiseman told his crew.
The crowd included flight directors and the launch director, Orion capsule and exploration system managers, high-ranking military officers, and the space agency's entire blue-suited astronaut corps and even retired ones. Wiseman and his US-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.
"This was not easy," Wiseman told the crowd. "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." Christina Koch said she was struck by her view of Earth from space. "Honestly, what struck me wasn't just Earth, it was all of the blackness around it," she said. "Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbably in the universe. Planet Earth, you are a crew."
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