The Artemis II crew, following their return to Earth after a historic 10-day lunar flyby, spoke with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, describing the mission as a “superb” expertise.
The crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — returned to Earth on April 10, splashing down off the coast of San Diego after their journey across the Moon throughout which they set a brand new file for the farthest distance traveled by people in house, surpassing the mark set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
Waltz gifted the crew “MUNGA,” or “Make the U.N. Nice Once more,” hats, impressed by President Donald Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more” slogan.
The crew was requested by Waltz what they thought as they appeared again at Earth from house.
The Artemis II crew hugs through the welcome residence ceremony on April 11, 2026. (KRIV)
“As a crew, we wished to go for all and by all,” Wiseman stated at U.N. headquarters in New York. “And we wished to set the stage for Artemis III. We wished to get this house company on this world prepared for Artemis III and IV. However in the long run, we actually wished to attach with humanity. We wished humanity to simply pause for a second and see that this world can nonetheless do one thing exceptionally nicely after they put their thoughts to it.”
Artemis III is predicted to launch subsequent yr, and Artemis IV is targeted for the next yr.
“You requested the way it felt, and it wasn’t one feeling for the whole mission,” Glover informed Waltz. “What we noticed out the window was altering, and that is likely one of the distinctive issues … I all the time felt the urge to simply be thankful for what we had been seeing, and to be thankful for what we had been ultimately going again to. And the opposite factor was simply how blessed we’re to have this.”
Koch stated that when she appeared again at Earth, the encircling darkness made the planet really feel “much more particular than it is ever been.”
Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman, Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch, Artemis II pilot Victor Glover and Artemis II mission specialist Jeremy Hansen have a look at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Instances Sq. in New York Metropolis. (Adam GRAY / AFP by way of Getty Photos)
“As an alternative of this absolute background that simply exists all over the place for us, as a result of that is all we have had, it makes the strains that we redraw on it appear large and necessary,” she stated. “You notice that really, there’s nothing absolute or assured about this, and that really, there may be such factor as a world scale. And that is the primary time I’ve stated that on the U.N., however the fact is that the worldwide scale is our world. And what we do with it’s our selection.”
Hansen described the expertise of seeing the vastness of house and feeling each small as a person and empowered by what humanity can accomplish collectively.
“It was like this bizarre factor the place, like stars, some stars look nearer in our galaxy than others. And it simply stored catching my eye, and it simply stored making me really feel actually tiny, actually small as a person. However then, on the identical time, I used to be on the market experiencing it, and it made me really feel very highly effective as a human race. What we are able to do collectively, the truth that we had been on the market and one thing that has been actually heartwarming since we bought again to Earth and began to see how many individuals stopped to observe the mission and resonate with it,” he stated.
Glover additionally recalled the various feelings tied to the mission, together with the “superb second” of returning to Earth.
ARTEMIS II ASTRONAUTS FACE TOILET TROUBLE AS THEY HEAD TOWARD THE MOON
Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen flank President Donald Trump within the Oval Workplace on the White Home. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
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Through the go to to the U.N., NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman wished to take a second to understand how far they’d come, noting that it was not way back that Trump established the Artemis program that led to the Artemis II mission.
“In actual fact, in simply 2020, President Trump established the Artemis Accords. Now, the preliminary framework was an settlement of ideas between america and 7 different like-minded international locations on the accountable exploration of house,” he stated.
The crew’s go to to the U.N. comes after they met with Trump on the White Home on Wednesday. Trump had additionally spoken to the crew as they had been orbiting the moon in early April.
